Maersk Oil and partners will recharge the North Sea’s Tyra Field, where production was once set to cease next year, with plans to pump about $3.4 billion into its redevelopment.

The company announced Dec. 1 that Danish authorities approved the redevelopment plan for Denmark’s largest gas field. The investment, which marks the largest ever for the Danish North Sea, is expected to allow operations to continue at the field for at least 25 years and enable the production of more than 200 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Discovered in 1968, production started at the more than 616-sq-km (237-sq-mile) Tyra Field in 1984. However, since then, subsidence of the chalk reservoir has taken a toll on the field, causing its platforms to sink by about 5 m (16 ft) over the last 30 years, according to Maersk, which said this has reduced the gap between the sea and platform decks at the field.

The field, which comprises the Tyra East and Tyra West centers tied into the Tyra Southeast, Harald, Valdemar, Svend and Roar unmanned satellites, will see infrastructure improvements that include:

  • A new processing platform and a new accommodation platform on Tyra East and Tyra West;
  • A 10-m (33-ft) extension of jackets on the four wellhead platforms and two riser platforms; and
  • New topsides, according to a news release.

The investment decision by Maersk and partners and Danish approval comes as market conditions continue to improve and demand increases.

Expectations are for the redeveloped field to deliver about 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day—mostly gas—at its peak, Maersk said.

“Tyra has been a key asset in the history of Maersk Oil, and an important source of energy security for Denmark,” Maersk Oil CEO Gretchen Watkins said in a company statement. “The redevelopment of Tyra is the largest investment carried out in the Danish North Sea, and when completed in 2022, production from the Tyra Field itself has the potential to cover Danish gas consumption for a decade.”

Danish Energy Minister Lars Christian Lilleholt praised Maersk and the Danish Underground Consortium—the partnership between field operator A.P. Moller-Maersk (31.2%), Shell (36.8%), Nordsøfonden (20%) and Chevron (12%)—for making the final investment decision (FID).

“The full reconstruction of Tyra is vital to the development of the Danish North Sea oil and gas sector,” Lilleholt said, “not just to Maersk Oil, but to many companies relying on Tyra as a central gas hub.”

Of the investment, about $2.7 billion will be spent on the renovations and new infrastructure with the rest going toward decommissioning of existing infrastructure.

In preparations for the work, Maersk said the field will be shut in November 2019. Production is set to resume in July 2022.

The FID comes about three months after Total agreed to buy Maersk Oil as parent company A.P. Moller-Maersk continued its mission to separate its oil and gas business as it focuses on integrated transport and logistics. The deal, valued at $7.45 billion, is expected to close in first-quarter 2018.

Velda Addison can be reached at vaddison@hartenergy.com.

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