Recent Developments In Offshore Petroleum Exploitation

This presentation will be devoted almost exclusively to the developments on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). Most of the issues that I deal with have, however, a more universal relevance. The development of the petroleum activities in the North Sea during the 1970's and early BO's have been, indeed, impressive. The North Sea has been the proving ground for many highly innovative and record-breaking technological solutions. The discoveries of the many giant oil and gas fields and the rapidly rising oil prices of the 1970's offered a unique opportunity for the engineers to conquer the hostile waters of the North Sea to a degree which would have been thought impossible before. Since the last part of the BO's the scene has changed rather drastically for everybody who 1S engaged in the further development of offshore exploitation of petroleum on the NCS. Most of the "giant" fields are believed to have been already discovered, certainly in the North Sea. Many of the "giant" fields which were developed in the 70's have now been drained for a significant portion of the recoverable reserves. In order to obtain a longer producing life for these fields different means of enhanced oil recovery have to be developed and tested out. Extended employment of the platforms with their process equipment and the pipelines may also be obtained through the development of smaller fields in the neighbourhood, so called satellite fields, from Which unprocessed products are piped to the existing infrastructure. Another feature of recent development is the increasing depths of water associated with many of the newer fields. With depths of 300 m and more, floating production systems of various types, including tension leg platforms are competing with the more traditional solutions of the North Sea.