Utgard Gas and Condensate Field

Utgard (formerly Alfa Sentral) is a cross-border gas and condensate field located in the central North Sea, which spans the median line between Norway and UK. A majority (62%) of the field’s reserves are located in the Norwegian waters, while the remaining 38% lie in the UK waters.

Equinor (formerly Statoil) is the operator of the filed, holding 38.44% interest in the Norwegian and 38% in the UK side. The remaining interests are held by LOTOS Exploration and Production (17.36%) and KUFPEC Norway (6.2%).

The Utgard gas and condensate field is being developed through subsea tie-back to the processing facilities of the Sleipner field, which is located 21km away in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

The plan of development and operation for the Utgard filed was approved by the Norwegian and UK authorities in January 2017.

Estimated to cost $412m (£338m), the Utgard filed development targets 56 million barrels of oil-equivalent (Mboe) of recoverable resources.

First production from the offshore gas and condensate field is expected in 2020.

Utgard field location, discovery, and reservoir details

The Utgard field is situated in Block15/8 of licences PL046E and PL046F in the NCS and Block 16/18a of the UKCS. The field is covered by licenses PL046E and PL046F in the NCS and the P.312 license in the UKCS.

Situated in 110m-120m-deep waters, the field was discovered by the exploration well 15/8-1 in 1982.

The gas and condensate reservoir of the field is located 3,600m beneath the seabed and forms part of the Hugin sandstone formation of Middle Jurassic age.

Utgard gas and condensate field development details

The Utgard gas and condensate field development includes the installation of a subsea template with four well slots and two gas producing wells. Drilling of the first development well was started in September 2018. The subsea template will be installed 850m from the border line on the Norwegian side.

The well-stream of the field will be sent through a subsea pipeline for processing at the Sleipner T platform located 21km east to Utgard, in the Norwegian Sea.

Operated by Equinor, Sleipner T is a gas processing and CO₂ removal platform located in the Sleipner Øst field. It is connected to the processing and drilling platform Sleipner A by a permanent bridge.

Hydraulics, production chemicals, mono-ethylene glycol (MEG), electric power, and signals will be transferred to the Utgard subsea installation through an umbilical.

The gas produced at the Sleipner T platform will be exported to the Gassled pipeline system, while the unstable condensate will be transported through the existing condensate pipeline to the Kårstø terminal for further processing.

Contractors involved

Aker Solutions was contracted to provide engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and commissioning (EPCIC) services for the tie-in of Utgard with Sleipner facilities in September 2016. It followed a preliminary engineering contract awarded in April 2016. The scope of the EPCC contract includes modification of Sleipner A and Sleipner T platforms.

Aker Solutions was also awarded the contract to provide umbilicals for the Utgard field development in November 2017.

OneSubsea, a subsidiary of Schlumberger, was awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the subsea production system of the Utgard field in January 2017.

OneSubsea provides a subsea template manifold system, two subsea wellheads, vertical monobore subsea trees, and the production control system along with associated intervention and workover tooling for the project.

Ocean Installer was contracted for the installation of the subsea manifold, umbilicals and, spools as well as for the tie-in work, in July 2017.

Wood Group was contracted for the subsea tieback design that involves a 21km-long pipe-in-pipe production pipeline from Utgard subsea template to Sleipner T platform, in August 2016.