Equinor powers Rosebank

Norwegian energy company Equinor has taken a step forward for its Rosebank project in the UK North Sea by submitting key environmental documents.

The environmental impact assessment was submitted to the UK’s Offshore Petroleum Regulatory Authority (OPRED) on Thursday. This document provides an overview of the Rosebank project and how to reduce its environmental impact.

By Friday morning, however, the link to the report on OPRED’s website had been removed. OE he asked OPRED why this happened.

EIA said Equinor plans to make a final investment decision on the first-phase project in February 2023. According to reports, first production will take place in 2026, producing about 70,000 barrels of oil and 1.7 million cubic meters of gas per day. Day. A second phase is then formed by the data from the first phase.

Equinor plans to drill four production wells and three injection wells in the first phase of the field development, followed by up to three production wells and two injection wells in the second phase. The well will be connected to a redeployed floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

Equinor plans to export gas via a new export pipeline connected to the existing West of Shetland Pipeline System, while oil will be unloaded using shuttle tankers. The company expects oil production from Rosebank to peak at around 70,000 b/d in 2027-28, level off until 2033, and decline steadily thereafter. Gas production is expected to peak at 1.72 million cubic meters per day in 2029-31 before steadily declining.

EIA also plans to electrify the FPSO, which will be powered from land. Equinor has previously said this could be powered by shore and/or offshore winds via subsea transformers.

The Rosebank oil field is located 130 km northwest of the Shetland Islands, at a depth of 1115 m and 15 km from the UK.
Faroe Sea boundary. Considered one of the largest undeveloped oil fields in the North Sea, it can hold more than 300 million barrels of recoverable oil.

Discovered in 2004, in 2019 Equinor acquired a Chevron-operated 40% interest in the Rosebank project in the West Shetland region of the British continental shelf, but the project has yet to be developed.

In February of this year (2022), Equinor signed a deal with FPSO owner Altera Infrastructure to see the Petrojarl Knarr FPSO redeployed to the long-dormant Rosebank project in the UK North Sea.

The FPSO is currently producing oil from Shell’s Knarr field offshore Norway since early 2015. In April 2020, Shell extended its contract with Knarr until March 2022.

Chevron’s sale to Equinor meant a complete exit from a project that had planned to deploy a new build FPSO. It has a capacity of 100,000 b/d oil, 80 mmcf/d gas and approximately 1 million barrels of storage capacity. It was to be the deepest mooring facility on the British Continental Shelf. Before the sale to Equinor, Chevron said he planned to bring the field online in 2024.

North Sea-focused independent Ithaca Energy and Canadian producer Suncor own 20% and 40% stakes in Rosebank, respectively, with the former acquiring a stake through its recent private equity-backed acquisition of Siccar Point Energy. Inherited.