By Dominic Chopping
Norwegian oil and gas major Statoil ASA (STO) said Friday it now
hopes to extend the life of the Norne field in the Norwegian Sea to
2030, having initially planned to shut down during 2014.
The company said that after 17 years of service, the Norne
floating, production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) is in
good technical condition while it has also aimed to facilitate
improved recovery and phase-in of new discoveries to the
vessel.
Norne and its satellites have produced around 700 million
barrels of oil equivalent since 1997, and the recovery factor for
the main Norne field today is 56.5%. The company will now aim to
increase the recovery factor to 60%, with remaining resources in
the Norne area possibly totaling 300 million barrels of oil
equivalent.
"The focus now is on progressing the good maintenance work to
keep up the good technical condition of the hull. Statoil will
establish a project in 2017 detailing the scope and time of
investments, and will also apply for an extended technical life for
Norne by 2021," the company said.
-Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com; Twitter:
@WSJNordics
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