The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has given the nod for Equinor to start production from its Utgard field in the North Sea.

The NPD confirmed Wednesday it had granted consent for the start-up of the field where Equinor is on track to commence production in September.

The field lies on the maritime border between the UK and Norway, with Norway’s share 62%.

The NPD said consent for start-up of Utgard covered production licences 046E and 046F on the Norwegian shelf and in production licence 312 on the UK shelf.

Output from the field will be delivered via two wells linked to the Sleipner T process platform with a pipeline and a communications cable.

The NPD’s assistant assistant director for development and operations, North Sea south, Tove Francke saw Utgard utilising spare capacity on Sleipner as a positive.

“The project ensures good and cost-effective utilisation of the facilities and the process capacity on Sleipner,” she said.

“We expect Utgard will create value both for the Norwegian society and for the Utgard and Sleipner licensees.”

Investment in the Utgard field development is expected

to total Nkr2.7 billion ($304 million) and it is estimated it hold 56.4 million barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable reserves.

The gas and condensate field lies in a water depth of about 115 metres, roughly 20 kilometres west of the Sleipner field centre.

The field was originally discovered in 1982 and the plan of development was approved in early 2017.

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Equinor gets nod for Utgard start up