A refund of NOK 30 million will be received by Statoil before 31 December following a redetermination of interests in the unitised Troll licence.
Carried out in the autumn, this reassessment of the North Sea field also means that the state's direct financial interest (SDFI) must pay NOK 195 million to partners who have had their interest reduced.
Troll licensees with an increased share have paid too little of the overall investment in the field, explains Per-Åge Pedersen, project manager for the redetermination in Statoil.
The group is one of five partners in the unitised licence – which covers production licences 054 and 085 – who had their holding reduced.
In Statoil's case, the reduction was by 0.065 per cent to 11.815 per cent. The other four are Shell, Elf, Conoco and Total.
On the other hand, Norsk Hydro, Saga Petroleum and the SDFI increased their interest.
As part of the financial settlement following the redetermination, the companies with reduced shares must return the excess oil, gas and condensate they have received since Troll production began.
These partners have two years to complete this repayment in the form of production volumes. In addition, their revenues from future production will be reduced.
Recoverable reserves in Troll are put at 1,331 billion cubic metres of gas, just over 1.2 billion barrels of oil and 213 million barrels of condensate.
Partners in the unitised licence can call for a redetermination of shares as new reservoir data becomes available. The next time this can be done under the unitisation agreement is in 2003.