Lille-Frigg discovered

The field was found in 155 metres of water. Petronord had secured the licence to this acreage during the second licensing round in 1969, when the Frigg licence was also awarded. Cores from Neptune 7 indicated that gas was present at a depth of 3 640 metres, with an underlying layer of oil.

A later well, drilled in 1988, established that Lille-Frigg contained gas and condensate at a high pressure and temperature (HP/HT). The reservoir was estimated to hold eight million barrels of condensate and two billion cubic metres of natural gas.

Lille-Frigg was not part of the same geological structure as Frigg. It lay in the Brent group of the Jurassic, twice as deep as the main field. The reservoir pressure was 670 bar, while the temperature amounted to 125°C.

Lille-Frigg was the first HP/HT field to be discovered by Elf Norge. During project planning, it transpired that subsea wellheads which could cope with this level of pressure and temperature were not readily available. A new technical solution was accordingly required.

More experience of operating unstaffed satellites was also needed before Lille-Frigg could be brought into production. This happened many years after the discovery was made, with the plan for development and operation (PDO) first approved in September 1991.