Norway: Equinor given consent to use Heimdal beyond its original planned lifetime
12 Apr 2021
What does producing life extension involve?
New technology and operating methods as well as measures to improve oil and gas recovery mean that licensees often want to keep existing facilities working past their retirement date.
In many cases, continuing to use facilities beyond their design life makes socio-economic sense. But permitting such extensions at the expense of safety is not acceptable.
Heimdal
Heimdal is a field in the central part of the North Sea. The water depth in the area is 120 metres. Heimdal was discovered in 1972, and the plan for development and operation (PDO) was approved in 1981. The field was developed with an integrated drilling, production and accommodation facility with a steel jacket (HMP1). Production started in 1985. Heimdal is now mainly used as a gas processing centre for other tied-in fields.