Parallel drilling on Glitne

Time and money have been saved on Statoil’s Glitne development in the North Sea by completing the wells in parallel rather than sequentially.

When working on four producers and an injector on the field, Byford Dolphin departed from the normal one-at-a-time approach by drilling all the upper parts first and then the lower sections.

“The licensees have probably saved NOK 30-35 million with this procedure,” says Gunnar Sund, manager for drilling and well operations on Glitne.

The wells have now been completed and are being readied for production. Testing of the producers started this weekend.

Production ship Petrojarl 1 will bring the field on stream in July, with an expected producing life of roughly 30 months.

Once Byford Dolphin has completed its work, anchors for Petrojarl 1 will be set and flexible risers prepared for retrieval from the seabed and connection once the ship is in place.