In preparation for production start-up, oil and gas company Neptune Energy has completed drilling operations on four development wells on its operated Fenja field in the Norwegian Sea.

Following the beginning of the phased drilling programme back in April 2020, the final campaign started in October 2021. The wells were drilled using the Deepsea Yantai, a semi-submersible rig, operated by Odfjell Drilling.

The Fenja field is scheduled to come on stream in the first quarter of 2023 and the completion of drilling operations is an important milestone, Neptune Energy said on Monday. Once it reaches the plateau, the field will produce approximately 28,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Operated by Neptune Energy, the Fenja development consists of two subsea templates tied back to the Njord A platform via a production pipeline, water and gas injection pipelines and an umbilical. The wells consist of two oil producers, one water injector and a gas injector. The gas injector will be converted to a gas producer towards the end of field life.

The production from the Njord field was temporarily halted back in 2016 so that the field facilities, Njord A platform and Njord Bravo storage vessel, could be upgraded. As part of the upgrade, the platform was prepared to bring the nearby Bauge and Fenja fields on stream. The platform upgrades were finally completed earlier this year and it was delivered to Equinor in March.

Neptune Energy’s Director of Projects & Engineering in Norway, Erik Oppedal, said: “The completion of the drilling campaign on the Fenja field represents the final step of the development project and we are now ready for production start-up. This region of the Norwegian Sea is a strategically-important growth area for Neptune, with high prospectivity.”

Earlier this summer, Equinor, on behalf of Neptune, successfully pulled in the Fenja risers and dynamic umbilical to the host platform, Njord A, which is now back on the field. Neptune says that the final tie-in activities will be completed shortly and all subsea facilities are ready. Upgrades of the Equinor’s Njord Bravo vessel have also been completed recently, bringing the Njord project another step closer to production re-start.

Fenja has been developed with an electrically trace-heated (ETH) pipe-in-pipe solution that will transport oil from the field to the Njord A platform. At 37 kilometres, it is the world’s longest ETH subsea production pipeline, according to Neptune.

The Fenja oil and gas field is situated at a water depth of 325 metres, around 36 kilometres southwest of the Equinor-operated Njord A platform. Neptune holds a 22.5 per cent owner share in Njord A which is located 120 kilometres north of Kristiansund.