Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway –Statoil plans to set up a new operational area in Harstad, northern Norway, with start-up in the first half of 2013.
This is needed, the company says, to support increased activity off Norway’s three northernmost counties.
Statoil CEO Helge Lund said: “Ever since the merger [with Norsk Hydro] in 2007, and the setting up of Operations North in Stjørdal, we have expressed our intention of establishing a new operational area in the North when activities and materiality justified such an industrial decision – and we are now seeing that level of activity.”
He expects further region growth due to increased exploration in newly opened acreage, and in areas likely to be made available in the Barents Sea and the north-eastern Norwegian Sea.
Initially, the new base will be responsible for the producing Norne and Snøhvit fields, and the planned Aasta Hansteen field development. Statoil plans to locate Aasta Hansteen’s operational organization in Hartsad, the supply base in Sandnessjøen, and the helicopter base in Brønnøysund.
Harstad should also serve the Skrugard/Havis development in the Barents Sea.
Statoil will retain Trøndelag and Møre, including Stjørdal, Trondheim and Kristiansund, as locations for its activities on the Norwegian continental shelf. The Haltenbanken fields in the Norwegian Sea will continue to be run from Stjørdal.
3/22/2012
