Norwegian petroleum and energy minister Thorhild Widvey is visiting Statoil’s Gullfaks C platform in the North Sea today, 13 September.
Accompanied by chief executive Helge Lund, she will be given a tour of the installation and a briefing on activities in the Gullfaks area.
Mr Lund will show the minister what a big commitment is being made to improve oil recovery in an area with declining production.
Gullfaks has so far yielded roughly 1.9 billion barrels of crude, more than 50 per cent above the volume thought possible when the field came on stream in 1986.
Measures to improve oil recovery include innovative drilling technology with longer wells, more advanced seismic surveys, and new and better management of sand production.
Ms Widvey will also be briefed on the way new technological solutions have helped to improve environmental results in the area.
These innovations include equipment which has helped to achieve a 20 per cent reduction in the use of chemical scavengers for removing hydrogen sulphide.
The minister will also be visiting Statoil’s Tjeldbergodden industrial complex in mid-Norway on Tueday 14 September.
She will be briefed there about plans to expand production at its methanol plant and to build a new gas-fired power station.