Gas has flowed from the first Snøhvit production well during testing and completing by the Polar Pioneer rig on the Statoil development in the Barents Sea.
Penetrating the Stø formation on the west flank of the field, this horizontal well flowed a maximum of 3.4 million standard cubic metres per day during testing.
“The productivity index was rather higher than expected,” says Thor Bensvik, drilling and well operations manager for the development.
He emphasises that the completion job was executed with a very good result and without any discharges to the sea.
Polar Pioneer is now due to perform the same operations on the remaining eight producers and the carbon dioxide injection well drilled through Snøhvit’s four seabed templates.
After the rig leaves the field during June, no visible sign will remain at the surface that regular gas production is ready to begin from the field.
Snøhvit is due to come on stream towards the end of 2007, when the wellstream will be piped to land for processing and gas liquefaction at Melkøya outside Hammerfest.