ConocoPhillips recently honored Staff Completion Engineer Jan Ove Sørheim with a 2025 SPIRIT Award, recognizing him as Innovation Champion for his role in advancing multilateral technology in the Greater Ekofisk Area and for implementing dual glass plugs during completion in subsea projects.
The purpose of testing new technology is to enhance recovery and cost efficiency. Jan Ove's efforts have had a significant impact.
“This is probably the greatest achievement of my career, and I was surprised when receiving the award. It demonstrates that we have done something right. I enjoy working at ConocoPhillips as I am passionate about technology. If you have a useful idea, you can test it. When I started in the company, I wandered through the Completion department and saw different types of solutions were being tested. I thought there was a lot of cool stuff," said the cheerful completion engineer from Lyngen in Troms.
In 2011, Jan Ove started as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips, after 10 years in the oil service industry. From 2014 to 2019, he worked offshore as a drilling engineer, drilling supervisor and well intervention supervisor. After returning onshore in 2019, he simultaneously worked with various technologies in the Eldfisk North and Tommeliten A projects.
Jan Ove and his colleagues first planned two multilateral wells on Ekofisk 2/7 S, then seized the opportunity to implement a more complex solution for the Eldfisk North subsea development.
"I am most proud of the multilateral solution we achieved on two Eldfisk North wells," he said. “Many multilateral wells have been drilled in sandstone reservoirs on the Norwegian continental shelf, but our chalk reservoir in the Greater Ekofisk Area adds complexity. Due to the reservoir properties, we need to stimulate the well under high pressure to recover oil and gas. The main challenge has been to create a cost-effective and robust subsea multilateral solution that we could implement in the Greater Ekofisk Area.”
Multilateral wells in the Greater Ekofisk Area
On Eldfisk 2/7 S, Jan Ove and his colleagues created a multilateral design for selected well candidates and tested new technology.
"For instance, we saw that the junction between two well laterals needed to be fully isolated, avoiding water break-through from the reservoir,” Jan Ove explained. “We therefore had to create a new solution that we implemented later in the multilateral wells on Eldfisk North, where we also tested other technologies.”
The multilateral wells drilled during the Eldfisk North campaign significantly reduced project costs. Additionally, multilateral wells provide greater reservoir contact and higher production. On Eldfisk North, there are now two multilateral wells out of nine producers.
Glass plug technology on Tommeliten A and Eldfisk North
Jan Ove, who works in the project team in Wells, enjoys creating innovative solutions and collaborating with other departments such as Subsurface, Operations and Projects.
"In the Tommeliten A project, we wanted to achieve more efficient completion solutions,” he said. “Then we came up with the idea of running dual glass plugs into the well. The solution was to pre-install two glass plugs as part of the production tubing, eliminating the need for costly and time-consuming wireline operations.”
During upper completion installation, completion engineers use a glass plug in a well for setting and testing barriers. Once engineers complete the well and prepare it for production, they apply pressure down the production tubing to shatter the glass plug.
Jan Ove said they used this technology in the completion of all Tommeliten A and Eldfisk North wells.
The temptations of Northern Norway
Jan Ove is a northerner at heart, even though he has settled down in Stavanger with his wife and three children. He fulfills much of his desire to be in the mountains by visiting their Sirdal cabin near Stavanger. But the temptations of Northern Norway, such as the mountains and the sea, are often present.
“I am 'home' two or three times a year," he said. "We have a family cabin up north for the extended family. I have also traveled there with colleagues. We are a group of well intervention supervisors, and a couple of ex-supervisors who go on an annual trip, mainly in Norway. It started when I worked offshore as well intervention supervisor. We found out that we had to do something together to build good teams, and a trip together helped us to bond. The first trip went to our cabin in Lyngen. It was great fun."