OREANDA-NEWS. November 23, 2012. Today, 23 November 2012, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (MPE) approved the Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) of Svalin. The field is one of Statoil's fast-track developments, the ninth in a row.

"This is the first tie-in field to Grane, and it is one of the most profitable projects in the fast-track portfolio, as a result of low development costs. Good cooperation internally and with the license partners has led to sound and cost-effective solutions," says Bjorn Herdlevжr, project manager for Svalin.

Fast-track developments are characterised by the use of standard solutions and existing infrastructure.

The Svalin field is located about six kilometres southwest of the Grane platform, at a water depth of 125 metres.  Recoverable reserves are estimated at approx. 75 million barrels of oil (corresponding to 12 million standard cubic metres). The reserves are about equally split between the two structures on the field: Svalin C and Svalin M.

The Svalin field will be connected to the Grane platform. The wellstream from Svalin M will be produced through a designated well drilled from the Grane platform.
 

Svalin C will be a subsea facility tied in to Grane by a six-kilometre production pipeline. There will be a joint processing and export solution.

The gas compression facility on the Grane platform will be modified to handle gas from Svalin.

Oil from Svalin will be transported together with Grane's own production in the existing pipeline from Grane for storage and shipment from the oil terminal at Sture.

Svalin M was discovered in 2008, and production start-up is slated for the end of 2013. Svalin C was discovered in 1992 and is scheduled to start producing during the summer of 2014.

"We are developing a field that will produce oil only, which is fairly unusual as most fields at the NCS today are also gas producers. Grane's production has been declining, and Svalin will enable us to utilise available capacity. This will alleviate the decline in oil volumes. The expected lifetime for Grane has been extended to 2030," says Herdlevжr.