The Statoil-operated Huldra field in the North Sea commenced production of gas and condensate on 21 November.
Roar S Andersen, production vice president for the integrated Huldra and Veslefrikk organisation, is pleased that Huldra is now producing.
“Huldra has been an exciting project, but the most important period in the field’s lifespan lies ahead. Now it’s a question of securing revenues,” he reports.
The platform on the field will not have a crew. It will be controlled remotely from the Veslefrikk B platform 16 kilometres away. But Mr Andersen says that in the initial phase a crew of 14-16 will be on board. The drilling rig Mærsk Galant is currently drilling production wells on the field.
Eventually, Huldra will produce from six wells. Production will be built up quickly to a plateau of 10 million cubic metres of gas per day. Plans call for the field to produce for seven years.
Huldra has a simple processing plant for separating condensate and gas. The condensate is piped to Veslefrikk for processing, while the gas is sent to the Norsk Hydro-operated Heimdal field. From there it can be sent through the Vesterled gas trunkline to the UK or through the Statpipe system to continental Europe.
Production is almost two months behind schedule due to repairs carried out on the condensate pipeline between Huldra and Veslefrikk.