Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway –Norwegian Petroleum and Energy Minister Tord Lien joined representatives from Statoil, Centrica, and ExxonMobil to acknowledge 5 Bboe of production from the Statfjord field in the North Sea.
Operations started in 1979, and the partners have achieved a recovery factor to date of 67%, compared with the original target of 40%. They are now looking to extend production through 2025.
The field was slated to be shut down over a decade ago, but new technologies have helped extend its productive life. In fact, production has risen the past four years following a combination of subsurface work, efficient drilling and well operations, Statoil said.
Drilling costs have been reduced by 50%, while more than 1 million m (3.28 million ft) of wells have been drilled into the field.
Although Statfjord still produces oil, the Late Life project converted it to a predominantly gas field by reducing the reservoir pressure.
The program involved drilling 70 new wells and extensive modifications to the three platforms.
The high recovery factor is largely thanks to the Statfjord Late Life project, lifting the horizon towards 2025. This means that the old oil giant Statfjord will still be producing when a new giant by the name ofJohan Sverdrup has started its 50-year production.
9/20/2016
