1 August 2008, the first oil flowed from the Vilje field to the Alvheim floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO).
The Vilje field is located in the northern part of the North Sea, north of the Heimdal field. StatoilHydro is the operator of the field, with a 28.85 percent interest.
Vilje is the first StatoilHydro-operated field on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) tied in to an installation that is run by another operator.
The field development concept includes two subsea templates and two production wells. Oil from Vilje is piped in a new 19-kilometre pipeline to the Alvheim FPSO, which is operated by Marathon Petroleum Norge AS.
The oil from Vilje is brought up naturally without any form of stimulation. The field is connected to a giant water zone and water injection will therefore not be required.
Former field analyses have confirmed the existence of high quality sand with undersaturated oil. The recoverable reserves at Vilje are estimated at 52 million barrels of oil, and the production is expected to reach a plateau of 35,000 barrels per day by the end of second quarter 2008.
