Norway Approves Aasta Hansteen Start-up
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (PDO) has granted consent for start-up of the Aasta Hansteen facility in the Norwegian Sea, it said August 31. The gas will flow to the UK from the newly-expanded Nyhamna terminal, where gas from the Ormen Lange field is also processed. First gas is expected in the autumn, said the PDO, meaning it could be in time for the start of the gas year on October 1.
“Start-up of Aasta Hansteen opens the door for gas production from a completely new province in the northern Norwegian Sea. After the project was approved by the Storting [parliament] in 2013, several other interesting discoveries have already been made in the area,” said the offshore regulator, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Those too will use the Asta Hansteen facilities, it said.
Aasta Hansteen is about 320 km west of Bodoe in a water depth of 1,270 metres, a record for the Norwegian shelf. Operator Equinor chose a floating installation with a vertical cylindrical hull anchored to the seabed, known as a spar, to develop the field. That is another first; and it is also the largest, weighing 70,000 metric tons. It is also the first in the world with a condensate storage tank.
Investment costs for development of the field are expected to amount to around Nkr 37.5bn ($4.5bn), which is within the range of uncertainty indicated in the plan for development and operation (PDO).
The Snefrid Nord discovery, made in 2015 in production licence 218, has been included in the Aasta Hansteen development, subsequent to the PDO. The expected investment cost is just under NKr 1bn and Equinor estimates the expected recoverable reserves for Aasta Hansteen, including Snefrid Nord, at 55.6bn m³ gas and 0.6mn m3 (3.4mn barrels) condensate. Gas from Aasta Hansteen will be transported in the 480-km subsea Polarled pipeline to the Nyhamna terminal. Produced condensate will be loaded on to tankers and shipped to the market.
The partners are Norwegian Equinor (51%), Germany chemical giant BASF's upstream subsidiary Wintershall (24%); Austrian OMV (15%) and US ConocoPhilips (10%).