Dvalin North Gas Field Development, Norway

Dvalin North gas field is located in production license 211 in the Norwegian Sea, Norway.

Independent natural gas and oil company WintershallDea holds a 55% stake in the field and serves as the operator. A 35% stake is held by Petoro, a state-owned company in Norway, while Sval Energi, a Norwegian energy company, holds the field’s remaining 10% stake.

The development and operation plan for the gas field was submitted to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in December 2022. The field is expected to commence production in 2026 and will help increase gas exports to Europe.

Location

Dvalin North lies 200km offshore from the northern part of Norway, at a water depth of 420m. It is located 12km to the north of the Dvalin gas field and approximately 65km north of the Maria field, both of which are also operated by WintershallDea.

Dvalin North gas field reserves

The Dvalin North gas field was originally estimated to have between 33 million and 70 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) when discovered in 2021. Hydrocarbons were later discovered in two deeper secondary targets with an aggregate resource estimate from 38 million to 87 million boe.

The field is currently estimated to hold approximately 84 million boe.

Discovery and exploration details

The Dvalin North prospect was discovered in the Haltenbanken area by the 6507/4-2 S wildcat well, which was drilled in May 2021. It was the largest discovery on the Norwegian shelf in 2021.

The well was drilled by the Deepsea Aberdeen, a sixth-generation semi-submersible rig built for operating in harsh environments at water depths of 3,000m with a drilling depth of 10,670m. The well discovered a gas column of 85m in the Garn formation.

Further exploration led to the discovery of gas, condensate and oil columns of 33m and 114m, respectively, in the Cretaceous Lysing and Lange formations.

Dvalin North gas field development details

The development plan for the Dvalin North offshore gas field uses existing infrastructure. It will be developed as a subsea tieback to the Heidrun platform, operated by Equinor through the existing Davlin gas field. Three production wells will be drilled through a single subsea system situated roughly 10km to the north of the Dvalin field.

The subsea production system for the project will include three horizontal subsea trees and control systems, as well as a four-slot subsea template and manifold system. It will also include three wellhead systems and related tie-ins, in addition to 10km of static subsea umbilicals.

Gas produced will be transported through the Polarled pipeline to the Nyhamna processing plant near Kristiansund. It will then be further exported to the European market.

Contractors involved

UK-based TechnipFMC, a provider of oil and gas technologies, won the contract to provide engineering, procurement, construction and installation services for the subsea pipeline connecting the field to the Heidrun platform in January 2023.

Sustainable energy solutions provider Aker Solutions was awarded a contract to supply the subsea production system, including subsea trees and control systems, and perform installation work for the project in December 2022.

WintershallDea awarded a contract to Transocean, an offshore contract drilling service provider, for its Transocean Norge semi-submersible rig in September 2022. Transocean Norge is suitable for harsh environment drilling and can operate in maximum water depths of 3,000m with a drilling depth of 12,200m. The scope of the contract involves the drilling of 11 operated wells for Wintershall Dea, out of which three wells will be for the Dvalin North field.

Odfjell Drilling was contracted by WintershallDea for the Deepsea Aberdeen drilling rig to drill the exploration wells at the field in September 2020.