Neptune starts drilling off Norway

Neptune Energy announced the drilling campaign on the Fenja field off Norway is now underway, following the spud of the first well.

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.

Fenja is Neptune’s first operated development project on the Norwegian Shelf and is estimated to contain 97 million boe. Fenja will deliver around 40 kboepd at plateau.

Neptune’s Director of Projects and Engineering in Norway, Erik Oppedal, said: “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 stated that 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 geopilots, 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. Production start-up at Fenja is expected by Q4 2021.

Fenja licence partners: Neptune Energy (Operator and 30 per cent), Vår Energi, (45 per cent), Suncor (17.5 per cent) and DNO (7.5 per cent)