Oil production from Statoil's Heidrun north flank development in the Norwegian Sea started yesterday, 15 August.
This project forms part of the Heidrun plateau scheme, which carries an overall price tag of roughly NOK 5.6 billion.
Totalling 125 million barrels, output from the north flank will be highly significant for Heidrun as a whole and for its tension leg platform.
It will extend plateau production from the TLP by roughly four years, until 2004.
The north flank development has progressed as planned, according to project director Harald Mork. It will satisfy Statoil's profitability requirements even at an oil price of USD 8.50 per barrel.
"This has been a complex and extensive job, with subsea installations, laying of flowlines and platform modifications," he says. "We're now pleased to have hit our target and to come on stream as intended."
Located 4.5 kilometres north-east of the TLP, the north flank installations embrace three seabed templates with 11 production and injection wells.
Two producers are being brought on stream in the first instance, with their wellstreams piped to the TLP. This has been fitted with 1,400 tonnes of additional equipment to handle north flank output.
This production will total roughly 38,000 barrels per day from the start. Heidrun is currently producing 190,000 daily barrels.
A gas export pipeline linking Heidrun with the Åsgard transport trunkline to Kårstø north of Stavanger also forms part of the plateau project.
The north flank lies in the same licence as the rest of the field, with the state's direct financial interest, Conoco and Fortum as Statoil's partners.