Equinor announces start of oil production in North Sea

The Norwegian company Equinor has announced the start of oil production at the Breidablikk field in the North Sea, Report informs referring to the company’s message.

“Production from the Breidablikk field in the North Sea started on October 20, four months ahead of schedule and within budget.

Tied back to the Grane platform, the subsea field holds almost 200 million barrels of recoverable oil. The partners are Equinor (39%, operator), Petoro (22.2%), Vår Energi (34.4%) and ConocoPhillips (4.4%).

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.

At peak, Breidablikk is expected to send up to 55-60,000 barrels of oil to the market daily, mainly to Europe.

Investments in the project are expected to be just over NOK 21 billion ($1.9 billion, 2023 value).