Tune is a gas condensate field located around ten kilometres west of Oseberg in the northern part of the North Sea. Statoil is the field's operator. Tune has been developed using a subsea solution tied back to Oseberg field centre.
Production began in 2002. Tune Sør was subsequently developed using a subsea well, tied back to a well template on the main field.
What does producing life extension involve?
New technology and operating methods as well as measures to improve oil and gas recovery mean that licensees often want to keep existing facilities working past their retirement date.
In many cases, continuing to use facilities beyond their design life makes socio-economic sense. But permitting such extensions at the expense of safety is not acceptable.
It has been established that there are grounds for extending operation of the field until around 2020. The risers and pipelines had an original life of 12 years. Statoil has therefore applied for consent to use subsea facilities, pipelines and control cables at Tune and Tune Sør until 14 November 2020.
The PSA has now given the consent that Statoil applied for.