Spirit Energy announced that production drilling at Nova Field in the Norwegian North Sea has started.
With most of the subsea work already complete and a dedicated module installed on the host platform, Gjøa, the start of drilling represents the beginning of the final major scope of work in the development of the Nova field.
Scheduled to be on site for around 400 days, the West Mira rig will drill three production wells through one of two subsea templates, and three water injection wells, through the other.
The start of drilling caps off a series of landmarks for the development since installation began in March 2020. In May, the manifolds were installed ahead of schedule. Then the topside module was installed on to the Neptune Energy-operated Gjøa platform in preparation for receiving oil and associated gas from the Nova field. This summer, the risers, which connect the pipelines to the platform, were also put in place.
Due to the impact of Covid-19 on the topside part of the project, production start will most likely happen in 2022.
About the Nova field
The Nova field is located about 120 kilometres northwest of Bergen, Norway, and approximately 17 kilometres southwest of the Gjøa platform in the Norwegian North Sea. The field holds approximately 80 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), of which the majority is oil.
The Nova field is being developed as a subsea tieback connecting two templates to the existing Gjøa platform which is operated by Neptune Energy. Gjøa will receive the production fluids and provide injection water and lift gas to Nova.
Oil from Nova will be transported from Gjøa through the Troll Oil Pipeline II to Mongstad, associated gas will be exported via the Far North Liquids and Associated Gas System (FLAGS) pipeline to St Fergus in the UK, supplying the European energy market.
Spirit Energy, based in Stavanger, Norway, has a 20% owner share in the Nova field. Wintershall Dea is the operator (45%) and the other partners are Edison Norge AS (15%), Sval Energi AS (10%) and ONE-Dyas Norge AS (10%).
(Source: Spirit Energy)