Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway -- The world's biggest jackup, Maersk Inspirer, is being towed to one of the Norwegian continental shelf's smallest oil fields, Volve, in the North Sea.
"An independent development of Volve means that additional resources can be phased in later," says Bente Aleksandersen, operations vice president for the Sleipner, Volve, and Glitne fields. "We will drill further exploration wells from the platform in the next few years. These can be converted into production wells."
The Volve field alone has a life span expectancy of six years, but if oil prices remain high, the field's life span could be prolonged because there are possible additional reserves in the Volve area, Statoil says.
The Maersk Inspirer will drill eight wells in the first phase – three production wells, three water injection wells, and two water production wells.
Plans call for startup in 3Q 2007. Recoverable reserves are estimated at 70 MMbbl of oil and 1.5 bcm (53 bcf) of gas. The field is expected to produce 50,000 b/d of oil at plateau production.
Statoil operates Volve with 49.6% interest. Partners include ExxonMobil with 30.4% interest, PA Resources with 10% interest, and Hydro with the remaining 10% share.
5/8/2007
