Breidablikk coming on stream for Equinor ahead of schedule in Norway North Sea
Equinor began production from Breidablikk field in the Norwegian North Sea on 20 October, four months ahead of schedule and within budget. Tied back to the Grane platform, the subsea field holds almost 200 million bbl of recoverable oil. The partners are Equinor (operator), Petoro, Vår Energi and ConocoPhillips.
“Breidablikk will come on stream four months ahead of schedule, within budget and with higher initial production than expected,” said Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s Executive VP for Projects, Drilling & Procurement.
When the plan for development and operation (PDO) was submitted in September 2020, production from Breidablikk was scheduled to start in the first half of 2024, with predrilling and completion of five wells. Now, eight wells have already been drilled, and the drilling of additional wells will continue on the field until the end of 2025.
Breidablikk is being developed with 22 subsea wells drilled from four templates. Pipelines and cables have been installed between the subsea facility and the Grane platform, which has been modified to receive the well stream. Investments in the project are expected to be just over NOK 21 billion (2023 value).
“By utilizing existing infrastructure both offshore and onshore, this is a cost-effective development. At peak, Breidablikk is expected to send up to 55-60,000 barrels of oil to the market daily, mainly to Europe,” says Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s Executive VP for Exploration and Production Norway.
The oil from Breidablikk is processed on Grane and sent ashore by pipeline to the Sture terminal in Øygarden. Oil will account for about 15 percent of exports from Sture in the years to come. The new field will be operated together with the Grane field by the Equinor organization at Sandsli in Bergen.
