Equinor to Replace Unsafe Wells at Martin Linge
Norway's Equinor will have to drill several new wells at the Martin Linge oil and gas field to replace unsafe ones drilled before it replaced France's Total as operator in 2018, it reported on September 8.
Equinor said a review it carried out concluded that four gas wells at the field lacked the necessary barriers, making them unsafe for production. It plans to replace them with three gas wells, in addition to the two other wells in Linge's development plan. The drilling of these wells will add another kroner 2bn ($220mn) to project costs.
Linge is already significantly over its original budget and behind schedule. In October last year, the Norwegian government revealed in its 2020 budget that the project's costs had ballooned to krone 56.1bn ($6.2bn), from a previous estimate of krone 47.1bn and an original krone 29.6bn projection when development was approved in 2012.
Equinor in May said it had postponed the field's start-up from late 202o t0 2021. First gas was originally scheduled for 2016, with earlier delays due in part to a fatal crane crash at a Korean shipyard tasked with supplying its fixed production platform.
Equinor holds a 70% stake in the project, while wholly-state-owned Petoro holds the remaining interest. Linge holds 70mn barrels of oil and 26.4bn m3 of gas, according to Norway's government. Gas from the high-pressure, high-temperature field is to be transported via the Frigg UK system to a receiving terminal in St Fergus, Scotland.