Equinor and partners started production from deepwater Aasta Hansteen field in the northern part of the Norwegian Sea. The natural gas and condensate field, 300 km from Norway in water depths of 1,300 m, has been developed with Norway’s first floating SPAR platform and is designed as a hub to support other discoveries in the area. The plan for development and operation was submitted in January 2013 (OGJ Online, Jan. 8, 2013).
Gas is produced from seven wells in three subsea templates. Subsea tiebacks will increase life of field and will use Aasta Hansteen’s infrastructure. The Snefrid North discovery will extend the plateau production and has an expected start-up toward the end of 2019. Recoverable resources of Aasta Hansteen, including Snefrid Nord, are estimated at 55.6 billion standard cu m (scm) of gas and 600,000 scm of condensate (353 MMboe) (OGJ Online, July 6, 2017).
Gas from Aasta Hansteen and surrounding fields in the Vøring basin will be transported via the 482-km Polarled pipeline to the Nyhamna terminal in Norway, before onward export to the UK (OGJ Online, Jan. 8, 2013). Produced condensate will be loaded onto tankers and shipped to the market.
Equinor operates Aasta Hansteen with 51%. OMV (Norge) AS has 15%. Other partners are Wintershall Norge AS and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia with 24% and 10%, respectively.
