Bauge subsea field is located around 15km east of the Njord Field in the Norwegian Sea. The field hosts mainly oil, with around 50 million barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable reserves.
Equinor operates the field with 42.5% interest. The other licensees are Wintershall Dea Norge (27.5%), Vår Energi (17.5%) and Neptune Energy (12.5%).
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The Bauge field was discovered in 2013. The plan for development and operation (PDO) of the subsea field was approved in June 2017 by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
Production from the field commenced in April 2023.
Bauge development used more than 90% Norwegian content, entailing a total capital expenditure of NOK4.1bn ($477m).
Bauge field location and geology
The Bauge field is located on the Halten Bank in the southern Norwegian Sea. The field lies in production licence PL348.
Water depth in the region is around 282m.
The main reservoirs contain oil in Early and Middle Jurassic age sandstone in the Tilje and Ile Formations situated at depth of 2,700m. The moderate quality reservoirs are compartmentalised.
Discovery and Appraisal
The Bauge field was discovered in 2013 by the 6407 / 8-6 wildcat exploration well.
The well was drilled on the Snilehorn prospect, which was later renamed as Bauge field, in southeast of the Halten Terrace, Norwegian Sea, to test the reservoirs of Early to Middle Jurassic age.
Songa Trym, a semi-submersible installation, spudded the wildcat well 6407/8-6 and drilled to a total depth of 3,420m in Late Triassic sediments in the Åre Formation.
Ile Formation was encountered at 2,789m with oil proven from top to base at 2,831m in the Tilje Formation from 2,902 to 3,035m and in Åre Sandstone from 3,191m to 3,214.8m.
In Tofte Formation, thin oil-bearing sands were proven from 2,842m to 2,872m.
In October 2013, the well was permanently abandoned as an oil discovery.
A side-track appraisal well, 6407 / 8-6 A, was also drilled by Songa Trym to test the Jurassic sequence in a down-faulted segment. It was drilled to 3,537m in Late Triassic sediments of the Åre Formation.
The Garn and Ile formations were found to be oil bearing throughout, while the Tilje Formation also contains oil.
Bauge Field development
The Bauge development comprises two oil producers in a subsea template and pipelines. From the field, the oil is transported to the Njord A Platform for processing and then to the storage vessel, Njord Bravo Floating Production System (FSO). From here, it is transported to the market using tankers.
Additionally, the gas produced by the field is transported from Njord A to the Åsgard Transport System through a 40km pipeline and then to the Kårstø terminal.
The products are recovered by pressure depletion, while pressure maintenance with water injection is expected to start few years after production.
Njord field commenced production in 1997. The installations were brought onshore for extensive upgrading in 2016. The field came on stream again in December 2022.
The Bauge Field tie back development is expected to increase the life of Njord by three years.
Additionally, Bauge field is the first user of a new subsea production system called Cap-X technology. According to Equinor, the use of Cap-X technology will reduce production costs.
Contractors Involved
Equinor had bought a licence to use Neodrill technology that was used with CAP-X brand name.
Aker Solutions received the contract of delivering umbilicals for the project in November 2017. The umbilicals were manufactured at Aker Solutions’ plant in Moss, Norway.
Equinor awarded two contracts to Ocean Installer for work at Snorre, Troll, Njord, Åsgard, Bauge, Fenja and Dvalin fields. The contracts comprised work from 2018 through 2020.
The first contract involved Subsea Lines Modification (SLM) work, offshore activities, and complex riser change-out operations. The second contract was for SLM under Equinor’s Wave Scheme.
Randaberg Industries, OneSubsea, Schlumberger (SLB) and Transocean were key suppliers of the Bauge field development.
