STAVANGER, Norway -- The licensees for Njord field and the nearby Bauge discovery in the Norwegian Sea submitted two PDOs (Plans for development and operation) to the authorities today.

This will extend Njord lifetime, and open up opportunities for further developments in the area.

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Production is expected to resume at Njord field in 2020. Photo: Statoil.

Njord shut down production in 2016 and the platform was towed to the Aker Stord shipyard – while the Njord B storage ship was taken to Kristiansund – for repairs and upgrades. Now, operating company Statoil and the partners in the Njord Unit production licences, 107 and 132, have submitted an amended PDO for the field – as well as a separate PDO for Bauge, which is covered under production licences 348 and 348 B.

Expected investments are NOK 15.7 billion for Njord and NOK 4.1 billion for Bauge.

The investments include reinforcement of the hull of the Njord A platform, upgrade of the equipment on deck, drilling of new wells and upgrade of the Njord B storage ship.

Bauge, which is situated about 15 km northeast of Njord, is being developed with a subsea solution, pipeline to Njord A and umbilical from the subsea Hyme field. Two production wells and one injection well will be drilled.

The gas will be routed through the Åsgard transport system to the receiving terminal at Kårstø in Rogaland.

Provisions will also be made so that the "Pil" discovery in production licence 586, south of Njord, can be tied in to Njord A.

"These are two important projects in the development of resources in the Norwegian Sea," says Kalmar Ildstad, assistant director for Development and operation in the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

"We are interested in ensuring investments to extend field lifetimes. This will allow both recovery and value creation to increase, while also opening up opportunities for developing other discoveries in the area."

Production started on Njord in 1997. Original recoverable resources were 31.8 MMscm (Sm3) of oil (200 MMbbl), 23.4 billion Sm3 gas and 6.4 million tonnes of NGL.

Estimated remaining reserves are 6.2 million Sm3 oil (39 million bbls), 16.3 billion Sm3 gas and 4.1 million tonnes of NGL.

Bauge was proven in 2013 (well 6407/8-6). Recoverable resources are estimated at 7.9 million Sm3 oil (50 MMbbl), 1.9 billion Sm3 gas and 1 million tonnes of NGL.

Production is scheduled to start in the fourth-quarter 2020 for both Njord and Bauge.