Page 14 - Danish Offshore Industry 2020

A HISTORIC

MILESTONE FOR THE

TYRA FIELD By Morten Hahn-Pedersen, historian

At 01:20 in the morning on Saturday the 21st of

September 2019, history was made over the North Sea
as Total (the operator of DUC) turned the taps,

shutting down production in the Tyra field in the
Danish part of the North Sea for a while.

Almost 35 years had passed since prime minister at the sufficient to clear the highest waves. At the same time,
time, Poul Schlütter, officially began gas supply from the new wave research provided increased insight into the
North Sea to Danish consumers with a symbolic press energy that could accumulate at the top of a wave. For
of the start button in the control room in Tyra East on safety reasons, seperate accommodation platforms have
the 1st of October 1984, beginning a new era of Danish been in place during winter so that Tyra’s crew could be
energy supply. evacuated in stormy weather. But this was an emergency
solution which was not sufficient in the long term. Other
Since then, the Tyra field has served Danish society radical solutions needed to be implemented if Tyra’s
well. The field has produced both oil and gas in large future were to be secured.
amounts. Over the years, from the beginning in 1984 to
the end in 2018, a good 190 million barrels (bbls) of oil/ Total’s predecessor as operator of DUC, Maersk Oil,
condensate and gas (equivalent to 631 million barrels had been working on a solution to the Tyra problem.
of oil equivalent (boe)) have been produced from just The North Sea Agreement in 2017 achieved the right
the Tyra field. Tyra was the centre of Danish natural gas framework conditions for the implementation of new
production from the beginning. This position was subse- major projects in the North Sea, and in December 2017,
quently expanded as a series of satellite fields were con- DUC made the final decision on the biggest ever North
structed and connected to Tyra. At the beginning of 2019 Sea investment in the Tyra field. The goal was not only
more than 90% of Denmark’s natural gas passed through to secure Tyra and bring the field’s facilities up to date, it
Tyra, which was also the starting point for the export of was to rebuild Tyra in a new and modernised form, using
Danish natural gas from the North Sea to the European the most advanced technology on the market. The Tyra
market via a special pipeline to the Netherlands. of the future would provide safer, cheaper and cleaner
energy, as well as having infrastructure that would allow
In other words, what has been closed down is a piece of the development of new, smaller fields related to hydro-
national history, as well as a central element of Danish carbon resources which it had hitherto been unprofitable
energy infrastructure in the North Sea. to exploit.

The Tyra field requires redevelopment due to subsidence With Total’s acquisition of Maersk Oil, which was an-
of the chalk reservoir that has led to the platform sinking nounced in August 2017 and finally completed in March
by around 5 meters over the last 30 years, reducing the 2018, Total also undertook operation of DUC and all the
gap between the sea and the platform decks. In rough associated obligations, including the implementation of
weather the remaining distance of 15 metres was not the large renewal project for Tyra.

12 / TYRA REDEVELOPMENT 13 / TYRA REDEVELOPMENT