“Sunday’s drilling start-up represents an important milestone in the project. The aim of these first geo-pilots is to gain a better understanding of the reservoir and to optimize the location of the production wells. As our first operated development in the Norwegian North Sea, Fenja is an exciting project for Neptune and underlines the importance of the region to our geographically-diverse business,” Neptune’s Director of Projects and Engineering in Norway, Erik Oppedal, said.
Located in the Norwegian Sea 120 kilometres north of Kristiansund and at a water depth of 320 metres, the subsea field will be developed as a tie-back to the Njord-A platform. At 36 kilometres, it will be the world’s longest electrically trace-heated pipe-in-pipe subsea development.
The development plan combines two subsea templates with six wells, including three oil producers, two water injectors and one gas injector. The gas injector will be converted to a gas producer towards the end of field life.
The Fenja drilling campaign has been modified to address delays resulting from the impact of COVID-19 with the licence partners opting to carry out drilling in three phases over the next two years. This also provides greater flexibility to respond to subsurface insights gained from the geo-pilots, and the current challenging market conditions.
The drilling program for 2020 includes two top holes and two geo-pilots, with an expected duration of 85 days. The drilling program for 2020 will be carried out by the West Phoenix drilling rig, operated by Seadrill.
Fenja licence partners: Neptune Energy (Operator and 30%), Vår Energi, (45%), Suncor (17.5%) and DNO (7.5%)
Project status
Fenja’s overall progress is about 50% complete. All SPS (Subsea Production Systems) components have been delivered and the SURF (Subsea/Umbilicals/Risers/Flowlines) is progressing well. The 2019 installation campaigns were successfully completed, where water and gas injection flowlines were installed and tied-in subsea, and are ready for operation. In addition, installations of Umbilical, Templates and Manifolds were completed. Fabrication of the production pipeline (ETH PiP) and related components are ongoing.
Host facilities modifications are ongoing on Njord A at Stord and on Njord B in Haugesund, and tow out to the field is planned for 2020. Fenja drilling operations with West Phoenix are planned to start in spring 2020. Production start-up at Fenja is expected by Q4 2021. Projected first oil 2021.
