Grane () is an offshore

oil field A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the prese ...

in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

located west of the city of

Haugesund Haugesund () is a municipalities of Norway, municipality and List of towns and cities in Norway, town on the North Sea in Rogaland county, Norway. As of December 2023, the municipality of Haugesund has a population of 37,855. The vast majority of ...

on the western coast of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. It is Norway's first heavy crude oil production field and

Statoil Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger, Norway. It is primarily a petroleum company operating in 36 countries with additional investments in renewable energy. In th ...

's largest heavy oil field in the

Norwegian continental shelf The Norwegian continental shelf () (abbreviated as NCS) is the continental shelf over which Norway exercises sovereign rights as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The area of the shelf is four times the area of Norw ...

. The oil from the field, located in Block 25/11 is transported to Sture terminal via Grane oil pipeline. The injection gas is imported to Grane oil field from the

Heimdal Heimdal is a borough in Trondheim Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It covers the western and southwestern parts of the municipality. The main centre of the borough is also known as Heimdal and it is located in the central part of the b ...

, located just north the field.

Ownership

The Grane field is operated by

, with Statoil holding 38% of the stake,

Petoro Petoro is a company that is wholly owned by the Government of Norway. Established in 2001, it manages the Government's portfolio—collectively called State's Direct Financial Interest (SDFI)—of exploration and production licenses for ...

– 30%,

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

– 25.60%, and

ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in t ...

– 6.40%.

Technical features

The field lies in of water at total depth of . The reservoir is nearly and has an average pay thickness of with an average porosity of 33% and permeability of 5–10 Darcies. The reservoir consists of sandstones of Heimdal formation of

Paleocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), ...

age, Lista Formation and has high viscosity.

Development history

Norsk Hydro and partners started development of the field in 1991. The Grane field started producing in September 2003. 31 production wells were put into operation. The facility was designed by

Aker Solutions Aker Solutions ASA is a Norwegian engineering firm headquartered in Oslo. The firm's production is focused on energy infrastructure, including systems and services required to de-carbonize oil and gas production, build wind-to-grid infrastruc ...

Engineering in 2000–2003.

Production

At Grane oil field,

Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norway, Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around th ...

used the technology applied at its

Troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

and Oseberg fields to maximize production in Grane. An estimated is expected to be produced by the field with . With the first horizontal well drilled, Hydro already reached a peak production by 10 March 2006 setting a record at which exceeded the initially established field plan by about . From then on, the field supplied the market an average . The company expects 55% recovery from the field. This makes Grane third of the size of Oseberg and twice the size of Brage. There is no gas cap in Grane field. The production profile of the Grane field (in million Sm³ oil equivalent) is as follows.

References

External links