OREANDA-NEWS. January 07, 2013. BP and partners announced the successful start of production from the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea, one of a series of new major upstream projects that BP brought into production in 2012, reported the press-centre of BP.   

“The start-up of Skarv is a key operational milestone for BP, adding new production from one of our core higher-margin areas,” said Bob Dudley, BP group chief executive.

The Skarv field is approximately 210 kilometres west of the Norwegian coast in water depths of approximately 350-450 metres. Discovered in 1998, the field has an estimated ultimate recovery of around 100 million barrels of oil and condensate and over 1.5 trillion cubic feet of rich gas.

The field development includes a new highly-advanced FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading vessel) purpose-built for harsh waters, five subsea drilling templates, and an 80-kilometre 26-inch gas export pipeline connected to the Gassled transportation system, allowing export to markets in Europe.

The field will ramp up production and is anticipated to reach around 125,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) monthly average rate (30,000 boe/d net to BP) within the first six months of production and an expected maximum daily rate of approximately 165,000 boe/d (40,000 boe/d net BP) by year end.

Rebecca Wiles, BP Norway managing director, said: “Skarv will be a very important hub for BP in Norway, contributing significantly to our production growth from Norway and representing an important new source of gas to Europe.”

“The field’s development has already created many jobs and business activities at Helgeland. With its expected field life of 25 years, Skarv will continue to be an important contributor to local business activities.”

Together with the continuing operation of the Ula and Valhall fields, the Skarv development underlines BP’s long-term commitment to growing its business in Norway.