The licensees for Statoilâs Volve discovery intend to seek tenders from contractors for an installation to produce this commercially-marginal North Sea field.
Located about eight kilometres north of Sleipner A, Volveâs recoverable reserves are put at about 60 million barrels of oil and a billion cubic metres of gas.
Plans call for the field to be developed on a stand-alone basis. But the area offers opportunities for supplementary reserves, reports Statoil project manager Einar Erfjord.
The invitation to tender a production solution for Volve is due to be sent out during January.
Plans call for Volve gas to be processed on Sleipner A.
âThis marks a milestone for the project,â observes Mr Erfjord. âThese tenders could form the basis for a possible decision to develop the field.â
He reports that Statoil has studied various development solutions in cooperation with contractors, and the planned invitation involves an extension to such collaboration.
A decision by the partners on whether to proceed with a field development depends on a contractor coming up with a cost-effective tender.
Should Volve prove commercial, a plan for development and operation could be submitted to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in 2004.
It would then be possible to bring the field on stream in the autumn of 2005 at the earliest, with initial plans calling for six wells to be drilled.
Oil would be produced from the field installation, with associated gas piped to Statoilâs Sleipner East field for processing.
Statoil has 49.6 per cent of production licence 046, which embraces Sleipner East and Volve. The other partners are ExxonMobil with 30.4 per cent, Total 10 per cent and Norsk Hydro 10 per cent.