Bøyla Field Development, North Sea

Bøyla oil field lies approximately 225km west of Stavanger, Norway, in block 24/9 in the North Sea, on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), in 120m-deep waters. Det Norske holds a 65% working interest and operates the offshore oil field, while the remaining interest is held by Core Energy (20%) and Lundin Norway (15%).

The oil field was developed as a subsea tie-back to the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facilities of the Alvheim Field located 28km to the north. The first oil from the Bøyla field was achieved in January 2015. The total investment for the field development was Nkr5bn ($805m).

Discovery and development of Bøyla oil field

The Bøyla oil field is located in production licence (PL) 340 in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, which was awarded in 2004. The field was formerly known as Marihone discovery, which was made in September 2009. The appraisal well 24/9-9, along with two sidetrack wells drilled on the Marihøne prospect in PL340 in October 2009, confirmed the presence of economically recoverable oil resources in the Hermod formation in Paleocene age reservoir rocks at a depth of 2,100m.

The plan for development and operation (PDO) of the Bøyla field was submitted to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (NMPE) in June 2012 and was approved in October 2012.

Core Energy acquired a 20% interest in the Bøyla development project from ConocoPhillips in January 2013.

Reserves and production

The Bøyla field contains recoverable reserves of approximately 23 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe). Production from the field is expected to peak at approximately 20,000boepd in its 15-year lifetime.

Processing infrastructure

The oil field, developed as a subsea tie back to the existing Alvheim FPSO vessel, includes two horizontal seabed production wells and one water injection well.

Fluids produced from the field are transported through a 26km pipe-in-pipe flowline to the Kneler A subsea template tied to the Alvheim FPSO for processing and exporting. The associated gas from the field is exported from Alvheim to the South Asia Gas Enterprise (SAGE) pipeline.

Contractors involved

In July 2011, Apply Sørco was awarded the front end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the topside modifications on the Alvheim FPSO required for the Bøyla development.

Aker Solutions won a contract worth Nkr210m ($33.8m) in January 2012 for engineering, procurement, construction and delivery of four subsea trees, four overtrawlable subsea structures and control systems for the field development.

Technip was awarded an Nkr2.4bn ($400m) engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning contract for the Bøyla field subsea development in June 2012. The contractual scope includes the construction and delivery of a four-slot production manifold, along with the fabrication and installation of spools, jumpers, pipelines and umbilicals.

Reef Subsea Integrated Projects (RSIP) was subcontracted by Technip to provide trenching services for the project in October 2013.

Conductor Installation Services was contracted in February 2014 to provide hammer services to install conductors and drive piles at the field.