ConocoPhillips Starts Up Tor II

ConocoPhillips Scandinavia and its partners in the Tor Unit have started production from Tor II, ConocoPhillips has revealed.

The resource potential for the Tor II project, which now has two producing wells, is said to be in the range of 60 to 70 million barrels of oil equivalent. In the coming months, several more wells are expected to be consecutively put on production.

Tor II is a redevelopment of the Tor field, which was on production from 1978 to 2015. It is the first redevelopment of a shut-in field on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, ConocoPhillips noted in a statement posted on its website.

ConocoPhillips outlined that the project comprises a two-by-four slot Subsea Production System (SPS) with eight production wells. The SPS is connected to the Ekofisk Complex by multiphase production and gas lift pipelines to existing risers at the Ekofisk 2/4 M wellhead platform. Controls and utilities are provided through a service umbilical from the same existing platform. The new greenfield facilities are located less than a mile west of the original Tor platform with no connection to the shut-in facilities, ConocoPhillips highlighted.

“Having produced the Tor field for 37 years, we are proud to continue to extend development enabling an expected production lifetime beyond 60 years,” Steinar Vaage, ConocoPhillips’ president for Europe, Middle East and North Africa, said in a company statement.

“Tor II is utilizing available Greater Ekofisk Area capacity for processing and transportation,” he added.

The Tor field, which was discovered in 1970, is located in licenses PL018 and PL006 in blocks 2/4 and 2/5. The original development comprised a single manned production platform, Tor 2/4 E, from which oil and associated gas was exported, via pipeline, to the Ekofisk Complex.

ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS currently holds a 30.66 percent operated interest in the Tor Unit, with the remaining stake held by Total E&P Norge AS (48.20 percent), Vår Energi AS (10.82 percent), Equinor Energy AS (6.64 percent) and Petoro AS (3.69 percent).

ConocoPhillips is one of the largest operators on Norway's continental shelf, according to its website. The company’s net production in Norway for 2019 was around 131,0000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, including production from fields operated by co-venturers. Headquartered in Tananger outside Stavanger, ConocoPhillips Norway has around 1,800 employees.

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