WATCHING THE WORLD RARE GOOD NEWS IN THE EKOFISK AREA

A jack up drilling rig towering over a small production platform is a rare sight off Norway.

The Maersk Guardian jack up has another rare quality as it stands in 230 ft water alongside Embla platform in Block 2/7. It represents good news about giant Ekofisk oil and gas field, currently a problem for operator Phillips Petroleum Co. Norway.

The rig is preparing four predrilled wells to begin production this month. Embla reserves are estimated at 50 million bbl of oil, 5 million bbl of NGL, and 100 bcf of gas. Production will be sent via Ekofisk field to Ekofisk.

If an oil platform is a miniature town, the Ekofisk area must be New York. Besides the main reservoir, Albuskjell, Cod, Edda, Eldfisk, Tor, and West Ekofisk fields already send oil and gas to Ekofisk Center for processing and transportation to shore. The Ekofisk area involves 26 installations, including 10 at Ekofisk Center.

Ekofisk also handles production from Statfjord, Gullfaks, and Tommeliten fields for Norway's Den norske stats oljeselskap AS, Heimdal for Elf Petroleum Norge AS, Ula and Gyda fields for BP Norway Ltd., Mime for Norsk Hydro AS, and Valhall and Hod fields for Amoco Norway Oil Co.

SUBSIDENCE PROBLEM

Phillips' problem is that Ekofisk is a city built on sand - well, chalk to be accurate. Falling pressure in chalk reservoirs under Ekofisk Center caused subsidence. Central platforms were jacked up, but the processing and transportation tank platform could be protected only by a huge concrete barrier. This too subsided, so much that the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) threatened to shut down production (OGJ, Oct. 19, 1992, p. 42).

At the time, NPD said Phillips must provide short term plans by Feb. 1, 1993, to improve safety on the tank platform, as well as long term measures by the following July 1. Phillips taxed short term proposals as required Feb. 1 but next day withdrew them, saying a contractor's risk analysis calculations were not thorough enough.

NPD said Apr. 2 Phillips will receive a warning, giving the company 3 weeks to detail short term measures for the Ekofisk tank. If NPD is not satisfied, it will then issue a directive committing Phillips to carry out the work NPD believes is necessary.

NEW PLATFORM

If Phillips' long term plan does not satisfy NPD, another order is likely, demanding relocation of processing and storage. Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd. said a new tank platform would cost more than $1 billion. This "...might be offset in the future to some extent by higher tariff receipts," because state of the art facilities would reduce operating and maintenance costs.

Phillips promised Ekofisk will not be shut down for safety considerations (OGJ, Oct. 26, 1992, Newsletter). Meanwhile, Phillips and Ekofisk area partners will need to remind themselves frequently of the 1.3 billion bbl of oil still remaining after the original 3 billion was first tapped in 1971.

Phillips once said Ekofisk production beyond 2050 is likely. Troll field excepted, Ekofisk could still outlive every other oil and gas field currently on production on the Norwegian shelf.

That thought places current concerns in a different perspective.