The Gjoa oil, natural gas and condensate field in Norway went into production. It is currently the biggest field development project in the Norwegian North Sea. The licence was awarded in July 1988, and the discovery was made the following year. After 22 years of work, the first gas and oil from Gjoa has now started to flow. The field is located in blocks 35/9 and 36/7 in the northern part of the North Sea, and it has reserves of 10 million cubic metres of oil and condensate and 37 billion cubic metres of gas.

The Gjoa oil, natural gas and condensate field in Norway went into production. It is currently the biggest field development project in the Norwegian North Sea. The licence was awarded in July 1988, and the discovery was made the following year. After 22 years of work, the first gas and oil from Gjoa has now started to flow. The field is located in blocks 35/9 and 36/7 in the northern part of the North Sea, and it has reserves of 10 million cubic metres of oil and condensate and 37 billion cubic metres of gas.

Full production capacity of 18 000 cubic metres OE per day is expected to be reached by 2nd half of 2011. Current planning provides for this level of production to be maintained until the year 2018.

Gjoa was developed with a semi-submersible production platform, four subsea templates and one subsea satellite. Sten Svensson, Licence Manager at RWE Dea Norge and member of the Gjoa management committee, says that the platform will be a future hub for discoveries made in the vicinity of the Gjoa field. The platform will receive power from land, through a 100 kilometres cable, from Mongstad north of Bergen. This measure is estimated to save the environment nearly a quarter of a million tons of CO2 per year.

RWE Dea Norge’s share of the reserves amounts to 0.8 million cubic metres of oil, 2.5 billion cubic metres of gas and 0.5 million tons of NGL (Natural Gas Liquids). The gas will be transported through the FLAGS pipeline to St. Fergus in Scotland, while the oil will be shipped through the Troll II pipeline and on to Mongstad.

“We are delighted that this ambitious, large-scale project is now in the home straight. Gjoa will be making a substantial contribution towards boosting our production in Norway, and it represents a vital part of our strategy for growth,” said Ralf to Baben, Chief Operations Officer of RWE Dea AG.

(RWE Dea Press Release)