Installastion of North-East Frigg

The discovery was located 18 km northeast of Frigg in block 25/1. The reservoir also extended into block 30/10. These blocks were awarded in 1969 and the associated production licenses were PL024 and PL030.

Elf became operator and gained 25 percent ownership, Esso 40 percent, Norsk Hydro 20 percent, Total Marine Norsk 12 percent and Statoil 3 percent. The reserves were estimated at 11 billion Sm³ of gas. The Norwegian government granted permission for landings abroad in 1980.

Northeast Frigg was the first satellite in the North Sea which came into production using subsea technology. It was expanded with six subsea wellheads in a well frame with manifold system and valve systems connected to an unmanned field control station.

The gas was piped to the Frigg field, treated at Frigg TCP2, and transported to St Fergus in Scotland through the Norwegian Frigg pipeline.

Northeast Frigg was controlled using radio signals from the main control room on the QP platform at Frigg. Divers was used both for installation and later for maintenance. The field control station was set 150 meters from the well frame, 18 km from TCP2 at 102 meters water depth. The modules for processing, measuring and compressing the gas from Northeast Frigg and Odin were installed on TCP2 in July 1983.

To prevent hydrate plugs in the gas pipe from Northeast Frigg, methanol was sent from Frigg TCP2 and injected into the gas line at Northeast Frigg.

December 23, 1981 the drilling of the six wells at Northeast Frigg began and was completed in the summer of 1983. The Byford Dolphin drilling rig from Dolphin Services provided the operation. On December 8, 1983, production started from the first three wells on Northeast Frigg. But only a month later, on January 10, 1984, Oil and Energy Minister Kåre Kristiansen pressed the button in the control room at QP and inaugurated Northeast Frigg.

Initially, production was two million Sm3 gas per day and gradually increased to five million Sm3 per day.