Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway -- Statoil has identified 900 MMboe of recoverable volumes in the Snorre field in the North Sea following an extensive survey, suggesting a probable 30 more years of production.
Torstein Hole, senior vice president for Operations West, said: “There’s enough oil for production on the Snorre field until 2040. The question is whether we should refurbish our existing platforms or build a new platform.”
This summer the Snorre partners opted to perform studies of potential concepts, with a view to taking a decision during 2011. Activity on Snorre currently is high, the aim being to ensure maximum use of resources in the years ahead.
Statoil views the Snorre area as a priority area for fast track-expansion projects. One of these is Vigdis North-East, discovered last year, which will hopefully provide Snorre with additional reserves from 2012 onwards.
The partners have also decided to invest $287 million in a new oil pipeline between the Snorre A and Snorre B platforms. This will allow Snorre A’s oil to be sent to Statfjord B for storage and export, again from 2012. The current arrangement, under which Snorre A oil is piped to Statfjord A for storage and export, will not be possible from 2012 if production ceases at Statfjord A.
Statoil adds that the Snorre A and B platforms constitute the fourth biggest oil production total on the Norwegian continental shelf. Snorre itself is the field with the second largest reserves on the shelf, with reserves now estimated at 1.5 Bbbl.
08/30/2010
