“We’re talking about production in a 50-year perspective. Our children and grandchildren will be working with this field.”
Jan Terje Mathisen

Mathisen reports that the discovery has been an inspiration for Petoro, an organisation with long and heavyweight experience of mature fields.

“We see that everyone’s been motivated by the opportunity to participate in a project of this size and duration, and we’re also attracting new people. We’re helping to define the future.”

Reinertsen agrees. “This is the biggest industrial adventure in Norway for a long time. I don’t think we’ll really comprehend its size before we retire and read about it in the press.”

AGREEMENT
A pre-unit agreement was signed on 23 March 2012 between the partners in the various licences involved (see box), with Statoil chosen as operator for this initial phase.

That means the company will lead the work until the unitised partnership submits its plan for development and operation (PDO) to the government in early 2015.

At that point, the unitised field will become a single legal entity. Until then, all issues must be voted on and secure a majority in each of the licences.

Reinertsen takes the opportunity to praise the other partners. “All decisions taken so far have been unanimous. Achieving that is a little out of the ordinary.”

Matters on which agreement have been reached include the choice of a field centre. Solutions have also been picked for oil exports and power from shore.

The centre will comprise platforms for processing, risers, wellheads and quarters, with berths for 450 people. Three subsea templates are also included.

Mathisen emphasises that thinking operating costs right from the start has been important. “Keeping production expenditure down will be crucial for the field’s long-term profitability.

“With an operating horizon of 50 years, a field centre provides a good overview, and four platforms linked by bridges will yield synergies.”

FLEXIBILITY
The prospect of a long producing life is also the reason why Petoro has pushed actively to build flexibility into the technical solutions.

That means incorporating extra space and expansion capacity into the platforms in order to meet future modification requirements.

“We’re seeking robustness combined with flexibility,” explains Mathisen, who has had a unanimous licence behind him in these efforts.

“Petoro’s very familiar with the challenges of mature fields, where space is often quite simply at a premium. We know how hard it is to create value in the mature phase if you’re not prepared.”

The political debate in Norway about power from shore for the field has not been allowed to disrupt planning work by the teams of engineers and other specialists involved.

But everyone – including the whole Storting (parliament) – has also been fully aware of the need to ensure that the project keeps moving forward.

“Progress is lost if you start to speculate,” says Reinertsen, whose eye is on a start to production from Johan Sverdrup in late 2019.

“But the power issue has clearly occupied substantial management capacity. We’ve achieved unanimity in the partnership on the decision to develop phase one with power from shore.

“This solution will also be incorporated in planning the next development stage and for other fields on the Utsira High. The most important consideration is to stick to the schedule.”