Offshore staff
The Norwegian Storting gave the green light for Statoil's Statfjord late life and Tampen Link pipeline projects in the North Sea. Statoil will invest NOK16.1 billion for additional recovery by converting the field's installations from oil handling with associated gas to gas with associated oil.
In February, the company submitted a revised plan to the authorities for development and operation of Statfjord and a new plan for installation and operation of Tampen Link.
"Realizing Statfjord late life will make a substantial contribution to value creation on the Norwegian continental shelf," Thorhild Widvey, petroleum and energy minister, says. "Over its 25 years of production, this field has contributed more than NOK450 billion in taxes to the Norwegian community. This new project means further resources can be recovered."
"Statfjord late life will further improve recovery from the field. The necessary modification work promises to help maintain a high level of activity both at Statoil and at our contractors in the time to come," says Terje Øvervik, executive vice president for Statoil's exploration and production Norway business area..
Statoil has awarded Aker Kværner, Vetco Aibel, and Smedvig Engineering procurement, construction and installation contracts worth just over 3.1 billion.
According to Statoil, over 1,000 people will be involved in work relating to these three assignments with additional staffing at peak periods.
The modification work requires three million hours offshore and three million engineering hours on land with some prefabrication. According to the impact assessment for the project, the company-estimated employment effect will be about 80,000 work-years from 2005 to 2026.
Statfjord expects to achieve recovery factors of close to 70% for oil and 75% for gas. Additional recoverable volumes from the late life project are 32 bcm of gas, 25 MMbbl of oil, and 60 MMbbl of condensate.
The company says that the Tampen Link is a rich gas pipeline, which will tie Statfjord to the UK's Far North liquids and gas system. Statoil will lay a 32-in. line 23 km in 2006, which will become operational on Oct. 1, 2007. At that time, Statoil will transfer operatorship from Tampen Link to Gassco.
06/09/05
