courtesy Talisman

Talisman in Norway will drill four production wells over the next six weeks at its “award-winning” Yme offshore field in the southern North Sea, as the company gets ready to test its project concept.

The Yme field and Norway are key to ramping up the company’s near-term production and lagging but solid share price. Some 25,000 barrels per day are envisioned by 2010 at Yme, once a “dead” field off Norway after producing for five years.

Yme and area field Rev could produce some 35,000 within two years and act as a springboard for financing other Norway projects.

Now, as the jack-up rig Maersk Giant readies to drill production and injection wells, the company is counting on its novel concept to keep costs in check at the Yme re-development. A jack-up production unit will stand astride a seabed storage tank linked to tanker traffic by a floating offloading buoy.

The idea won the Canadians an award from Norwegian officials for the first time value had been created out of others' reservoir scraps.

First oil is expected by year-end 2009 after the platform is delivered from its yard in Abu Dhabi. The storage tank was installed late this summer in water 107 metres deep.

The platform will be installed above the field and its 52 million barrels of oil by late 2009.

Tags: Talisman Energy