Njord Field Opens For 20 More Years of Service

Njord field in the Norwegian Sea has officially been opened by the minister of petroleum and energy, Terje Aasland, following upgrades to the platform and the FSO.

The extensive upgrades that the floating storage and offloading vessel and the platform have undergone mean the field life, and the production, is boosted even more.

“With the war in Ukraine, the export of Norwegian oil and gas to Europe has never been more important than now. Reopening Njord contributes to Norway remaining a stable supplier of gas to Europe for many years to come,” says Terje Aasland, Minister of Petroleum and Energy.

The Njord field started production in 1997 and was originally supposed to produce until 2013. However, systematic work with increased recovery means that there are still large volumes of oil and gas left, Equinor said in a company statement. New discoveries in the area can also be produced and exported via Njord, it added.

In 2016, the platform and FSO were disconnected from the field and towed to shore for extensive upgrades. On December 27, 2022, production resumed from the Njord field.

“This is the first time a platform and an FSO have been disconnected from the field, upgraded and towed back offshore. We have now doubled the field life,” says Grete B. Haaland, Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration and production north.

“It has been a big and demanding job, partly carried out during a pandemic, and I would like to thank everyone involved in preparing Njord for continuing its supply of oil and gas to the market. With the prices we anticipate in the coming years this comprehensive upgrading project will be repaid in in just under two years after startup,” Haaland added.

It is not just the field life that has been doubled, Equinor’s statement reads. The ambition is also to double production and produce approximately the same volume from Njord as it has produced so far, around 250 million barrels of oil equivalent, Equinor highlighted.

Ten new wells will be drilled on Njord from an upgraded drilling facility, according to Equinor, which said discoveries have previously been made in the Njord area and more exploration will be carried out close to the field.

In addition, two new subsea fields have already been tied back to Njord. On April 8, the Equinor-operated Bauge field started its production, while the Fenja subsea field, operated by Njord partner Neptune Energy, came on stream on April 27. Recoverable volumes from the two fields combined are 110 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Plans call for future partial electrification of the Njord field based on power from shore via the Norwegian Sea Draugen platform, thereby reducing annual CO2 emissions by around 130,000 tons.

It is worth reminding that in late 2022, the Njord project was brought onstream, however, production was impacted by issues with important processing equipment during the ramp up phase. At the end of March, these issues were resolved and production has performed strongly since, Neptune Energy said.

The Njord licensees are Wintershall Dea Norge AS (50 percent), Equinor Energy AS (27.5 percent, operator) and Neptune Energy Norge AS (22.5 percent).

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