Equinor boosts Vigdis production with new subsea pumping station

Equinor Energy AS has improved oil recovery by around 16 million bbl from existing wells in Vigdis oil field with a new subsea multiphase boosting station. The pump came on stream in May.

The field lies in the Tampen area in North Sea block 34/7 (PL 089) in 280 metres of water.

The boosting station is connected to the existing pipeline between Vigdis and Snorre A and helps bring the well stream from the subsea field up to the platform and reduces wellhead pressure, which also leads to higher oil recovery.

The contract for supplying the boosting system, including the template and trawl protection, was awarded to OneSubsea, with engineering in Bergen and assembly at Horsøy near Bergen.

In addition to the subsea boosting station, smaller modifications have been made to Snorre A, which receives oil from Vigdis, and Snorre B, which supplies the new boosting station with power from a new umbilical supplied by Nexans.

Wood has been the main supplier for the modifications and the marine operations have been carried out by Deep Ocean.

Subsea pumps are particularly important to deep-water fields with long distances between subsea facilities and platforms, Equinor said. Other examples of such projects are Tordis subsea separation and boosting, Gullfaks subsea compression, and Åsgard subsea compression.

When Vigdis field came on stream in 1997, recoverable resources were estimated at 200 million bbl. So far, the field has produced 413 million bbl and estimated recoverable resources have increased to 475 million bbl.

Licence partners invested around NOK 1.4 billion in the Vigdis boosting project.

Equinor is operator of PL 089 (41.5%) with partners Petoro AS (30%), Vår Energi AS (16.1%), Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS (9.6%), and Wintershall Dea Norge AS (2.8%).

Source: Oil & Gas Journal