upOil from the Heidrun field. The Heidrun oil field is an

oil and gas field A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in Porosity, porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the ...

discovered in 1985 in the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

sector of the

Norwegian Sea The Norwegian Sea ( no, Norskehavet; is, Noregshaf; fo, Norskahavið) is a marginal sea, grouped with either the Atlantic Ocean or the Arctic Ocean, northwest of Norway between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea, adjoining the Barents Sea to ...

, named after the goat

Heiðrún Heiðrún or Heidrun is a goat in Norse mythology, who consumes the foliage of the tree Læraðr and produces mead for the einherjar. She is described in the ''Poetic Edda'' and ''Prose Edda''. ''Prose Edda'' ''Poetic Edda'' In the ''Poetic ...

from

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...

. The field lies north of

Kristiansund Kristiansund (, ; historically spelled Christianssund and earlier named Fosna) is a municipality on the western coast of Norway in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal county. The administrative center of the municipality is the town of ...

. It has produced

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

gas Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

since October 1995. In 2013, it produced 65,000 bbl of oil per day and 760 million cubic meters of natural gas.Offshore Technology
/ref> The crude oil is characterized as being

naphthenic In organic chemistry, the cycloalkanes (also called naphthenes, but distinct from naphthalene) are the monocyclic saturated hydrocarbons. In other words, a cycloalkane consists only of hydrogen and carbon atoms arranged in a structure containing ...

with 25.0 API (0.9043 g/cm³), 0.52% sulfur, and a high TAN (

Total Acid Number The total acid number (TAN) is a measurement of acidity that is determined by the amount of potassium hydroxide in milligrams that is needed to neutralize the acids in one gram of oil. It is an important quality measurement of crude oil. The TAN v ...

) of 2.90. The Heidrun field is located on Haltenbanken in the Norwegian Sea at a depth of . The field has been developed with gas and water injection, using a floating concrete

tension leg platform __NOTOC__ A tension-leg platform (TLP) or extended tension leg platform (ETLP) is a vertically moored floating structure normally used for the offshore production of oil or gas, and is particularly suited for water depths greater than 300 metres ...

, installed over a subsea template with 58 well slots. The northern part of the field is developed with subsea facilities.

Geology

The

Cimmerian The Cimmerians (Akkadian: , romanized: ; Hebrew: , romanized: ; Ancient Greek: , romanized: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people originating in the Caspian steppe, part of whom subsequently migrated into West Asi ...

structure is a southwest-plunging horst block on the southwest flank of the Nordland ridge formed in the Late

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

-Early

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

. Production is from Jurassic Fangst Group

sandstones Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) b ...

with the Upper Jurassic Spekk Formation

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

s being the petroleum source and Cretaceous shales forming the seal.

References

External links

Heidrun Facts and Interactive map

Heidrun field development
Information on Heidrun platform
Heidrun Field Map & Images
{{gasfield-stub Oil fields in Norway Natural gas fields in Norway Horsts (geology)