A new water injection platform for the reactivated LL 652 oil field in Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo began working on 24 December.
Operated by Chevron with Statoil as a partner, this installation was built by Brown & Root in the USA and arrived in the lake during August. A daily injection capacity of 200,000 barrels can be increased to 500,000.
Statoil's Lars Seeberg headed the start-up operation, which was a red-letter day for a field in production since the early 1950s.
Two new platforms for oil and gas processing are due to come on stream during January, boosting daily output from 12,000 to almost 100,000 barrels towards 2008.
Chevron , Statoil, Arco and Phillips were awarded LL 652 during Venezuela's third licensing round in 1997. At present, 10 Statoil personnel are on secondment to Chevron's project team.
The first phase of the reactivation project, covering three platforms with production equipment and two wellhead structures, has cost just under NOK 4 billion.