The Danish Underground Consortium (DUC) is a partnership between TotalEnergies (operator, 43.2%), BlueNord (36.8%), and Nordsøfonden (20%). While disclosing the progress made in the final stage of the Tyra redevelopment project, BlueNord confirmed the expected timeline for the first gas, referring to the REMIT notification issued by TotalEnergies.
According to the company, significant work scope on the completion of the Tyra II facilities has been executed since October 2023. The leak testing – essential to the safety and integrity before gas-in and the functional testing of key process machinery required for processing the gas – is progressing well while the Tyra East riser platform Echo was declared hot, with all pipelines connected.
Furthermore, the de-isolation of these pipelines, which is ongoing, is seen as an important step towards first gas. More progress is also evidenced on Tyra West, as the first wells have been unplugged and de-watered, with two wireline teams working in parallel on the Tyra West B and C platforms with the unplugging of wells.
“An extensive amount of work has been carried out on the leak testing of the facilities and it is expected that all leak testing will be completed ahead of first gas export which could support an efficient ramp-up and a reduced ramp-up period. The key focus before the first gas export remains to ensure that the safety and emergency systems are fully functional,” highlighted BlueNord.
Based on TotalEnergies’ REMIT notification from January 22, the project progress to date indicates that the current restart date of March 31, 2024, remains valid. However, depending on the project’s progress, it could be reached earlier in March.
In addition, the French oil major reveals that the outcome of tests now suggests that a ramp-up to maximum technical capacity is expected to take four months from restart. Once on stream, Tyra II is expected to deliver 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas per year, which amounts to 80% of the forecasted Danish gas production.
Tyra has been a center for processing and exporting more than 90% of the natural gas produced in the Danish North Sea before its redevelopment, which was required due to the field’s natural subsidence of the chalk reservoir after many years of production.
The redevelopment entailed three elements, including decommissioning and recycling of the old Tyra platforms, recycling and extending the current platform legs on six of the platforms, which got new topsides, a completely new process module, and a new accommodation platform.
A crane was put on the process module (TEG) into permanent use after the installation of the Tyra II process module in early October 2022, which broke the world record as the heaviest crane lift ever undertaken at sea. The TEG enabled the completion of the remaining scope of the hook-up, commissioning, and start-up of the project.
This process module will be able to process 300 million standard cubic feet of gas per day at peak from Tyra and five unmanned satellite fields, including Tyra Southeast, Harald, Valdemar, Svend, and Roar. Recently, a final investment decision (FID) was taken to drill a well in the Harald East area.
