The Norwegian authorities have granted Repsol consent for a new start-up of the Yme field in the North Sea. Yme will once again be producing oil, 20 years after the last time the field was on stream. Planned start-up will be in the second half of 2021.
Yme is one of the first oil fields on the Norwegian shelf to be redeveloped after the field was shut down in 2001. Back then, continued operation was not considered profitable.
Yme was originally developed with a jack-up production facility and a storage ship for the sole structure, Gamma. A new Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) was approved for Yme in 2007, but the project was not implemented. The new amended PDO for Yme (production license 316 and production license 316 B) relates to a combination of existing and new installations and wells.
The new facilities that will be put to use include the contracted jack-up drilling and production facility Mærsk Inspirer and a wellhead module placed on the existing caisson. A new permanent support structure for the caisson has also been installed, as well as a new subsea template.
The amended PDO was approved in March 2018 without stipulations. The development project has been delayed by more than one year. The developers have estimated total investments at NOK 12 billion.
The recoverable reserves in Yme are estimated at approx. 10 million standard cubic meters of oil (approx. 63 million barrels).
Source: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate
