Neptune Energy and its partners Wintershall Dea, Petoro and Okea has started production from the Gjoa P1 development in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, a move that will add around 100 million barrels more to production than was expected at first output more than a decade ago.

The Gjoa P1 project consist of a new subsea template, tied back to existing infrastructure on the Gjoa field.

The two-well development, with a single oil and one gas producer, increases the total remaining developed reserves at Gjoa by 30%.

Neptune managing director for Norway, Odin Estensen, said the project represent an important milestone for the operator and its partners and demonstrates their commitment to invest in Norway.

“Despite the challenges of the (coronavirus) pandemic, we delivered the project on time and on budget," Estensen said.

Gjoa is now set to produce over 100 million boe more than was estimated when production began in 2010.

According to Evensen, the start-up of Gjoa P1, as well as the upcoming production start from the neighbouring Duva field, strengthens Neptune’s role in the northern part of the North Sea, an important growth area for its business.

Neptune's projects & engineering director in Norway, Erik Oppedal, said that the P1 development enables Neptune to recover significant quantities of oil and gas from deeper-lying reservoirs, as well as to utilise spare production capacity. This will help lower production costs per barrel.

The Gjoa field was discovered in 1989, and the development plan was approved by Norwegian authorities in 2007.

The Duva and Nova fields are under development as tie-ins to the Gjoa platform and are expected to start production in late 2021 and early 2022, respectively.

The field had 460 million barrels of oil equivalents of commercial oil, gas and natural gas liquids, according to Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

The field is developed with five subsea templates tied to the Gjoa semi-submersible for processing and export. Oil is exported by pipeline to Mongstad and gas by pipeline to St Fergus in the UK.

The Gjoa P1 segment is located in the northern part of the Gjoa field, and is tied back to Gjoa’s subsea facility via a 5 kilometre oil pipeline and a 2 kilometre gas pipeline at a water depth of 340 meters.

The licence partners are Neptune (30% and operator), Petoro (30%), Wintershall Dea (28%) and Okea (12%).

Production

Neptune fires up new tie-back development offshore Norway