Draugen is an oil field in the Norwegian Sea, around 150 km north of Kristiansund. A/S Norske Shell (Shell) is the field's operator. Production on the field began in October 1993.
The field has been developed using a fixed concrete facility with an integrated deck. Deposits in the vicinity are produced by subsea wells tied back to the Draugen facility.
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.
Production at Draugen began in 1993.
Shell believes there are grounds for producing from Draugen after the production licence expires in 2023 and wishes to apply to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy to extend the production licence.
However, the PSA is unable to grant consent for operations beyond the term of the current production licence. Shell has therefore received consent to extend the lifetime of the Draugen facility to 9 March 2024.