Contracts have been awarded by Statoil for further studies relating to its planned Statfjord late life project in the North Sea.
The group has exercised options worth some NOK 50 million in a contract with Aker Kværner to continue studying modifications required on the field’s three platforms.
In addition, Belgium’s Fabricom and ABB have been awarded minor familiarisation contracts for similar studies.
Statfjord late life involves changing the depletion strategy from pressure support to pressure reduction in order to recover gas from the field.
This in turn could extend its producing life by eight to 10 years up to 2018.
“We’re working towards submitting a possible plan for development and operation in December,” says project manager Bjarne Bakken at Statoil.
He emphasises that a good deal of work remains to be done on improving profitability in the project.