Wintershall Dea has kicked off production drilling at its Dvalin subsea tie-back field development in the Norwegian Sea.

Semi-submersible Transocean Arctic will sink a total of four production wells at the gas field during the year-long drilling campaign, with the wells to be drilled to a depth of 4500 metres and tied back via a four-slot subsea template to the Equinor-operated Heidrun host platform located 15-kilometres to the north-west.

It follows a busy summer of activity that has seen installation of a subsea manifold and pipelines in a water depth of 400 metres at the field, as well as installation of a 3500-tonne gas processing module on Heidrun earlier this month.

The field, with estimated reserves of 113 million barrels of oil equivalent, is being developed by the German operator at a cost of Nkr10.6 billion ($1.2 billion), with start-up scheduled for October 20202.

Gas from Dvalin will be partially processed on Heidrun and then transported in a new pipeline connected to the Polarled route for onward export to the onshore Nyhamna terminal before being further processed and then shipped to UK and European markets.

Wintershall Dea holds a 55% operating stake in the field, with partners Petoro and Edison on 35% and 10%, respectively.

Field Development

Dvalin drilling gets under way