A new subsea template is to be installed and two new wells drilled to improve recovery on the Statoil-operated Norne field in the Norwegian Sea.
The template will be tied back to existing subsea templates on the field. This concept also allows for two extra wells to be drilled at a later date.
Investment costs are estimated at NOK 800 million, which will result in an improvement in recovery of well over 10 million barrels of oil.
"All the well slots on the existing templates are currently being used for production or injection," says project coordinator Kjell Helge Eide.
"Drilling sidetracks, which boosts and speeds up recovery, from existing wells has to date been used to reach new well targets," he explains. "The total oil recovery on Norne will be increased by installing a new template and drilling the new wells from this template."
Plans call for the subsea template to be installed in September, while the wells will be drilled and completed in time for production to start as early as the autumn of 2006.
Statoil has previously implemented a series of measures to optimally exploit the infrastructure in the Norne area. Urd (previously the Svale and Stær fields) is being developed with a total of three subsea templates which will be tied back to the Norne production ship, and production will start this autumn.