Equinor Receives Approval for Plug and Abandonment Activities in the North Sea
Equinor, a Norwegian state-owned energy giant, has received the go-ahead from the country’s authorities to undertake plug and abandonment (P&A) activities in the North Sea off the coast of Norway with a semi-submersible rig managed by Odfjell Drilling, an offshore drilling contractor.
The Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil) has granted Equinor consent to use the Deepsea Bollsta rig for permanent plugging and abandonment of wells 31/3-Q-21 and 31/2-X-23 at the Troll field in the northern part of the North Sea, where the water depth is 300-330 meters.
The 2020-built Deepsea Bollsta rig, owned by Northern Ocean (NOL), secured work on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) last year. This sixth-generation semi-submersible rig is of Moss CS60E design and can accommodate 140 people. The semi-sub can carry out operations in both benign and harsh environments at water depths of up to 3,000 meters.
Development of the Troll Field
Discovered in 1979, with the initial plan for development and operation (PDO) approved in 1986, and updated in 1990, the field came online in 1995. As a phased development was pursued for the Troll field, Phase I focused on recovering gas reserves in Troll Øst and Phase II on the oil reserves in Troll Vest.
While Troll Phase I has been developed with the Troll A fixed wellhead and compression facility with a concrete substructure, Troll Phase II was developed with the Troll B floating concrete accommodation and production facility, and the Troll C semi-submersible accommodation and production steel facility. Troll Phase III came online in 2021.
Future Plans for the Troll Field
The operator decided to pursue the second stage of the Troll Phase 3 (TP3 II) project by investing over NOK 12 billion (close to $1.13 billion) to boost the gas infrastructure in the Troll West gas area to accelerate production. Equinor recently hired Aker Solutions to prepare the topside of the Troll C platform to receive and process production from the Fram Sør subsea tie-in, following the submission of a plan for development and operation (PDO) for the project aimed at bringing more oil and gas to Europe from the Fram and Troll area.