Statfjord late life approved

Plans for Statoil’s Statfjord late life and Tampen Link pipeline projects in the North Sea were given the green light by the Norwegian Storting (parliament) on 8 June.

Investing NOK 16.1 billion will allow additional volumes to be recovered by converting the field’s installations from handling oil with associated gas to gas with associated oil.

A revised plan for development and operation of Statfjord and a new plan for installation and operation of Tampen Link were submitted to the authorities in February.

“Realising Statfjord late life will make a substantial contribution to value creation on the Norwegian continental shelf,” says petroleum and energy minister Thorhild Widvey.

“Over its 25 years of production, this field has contributed more than NOK 450 billion in taxes to the Norwegian community. This new project means further resources can be recovered.”

“Statfjord late life will further improve recovery from the field,” agrees Terje Øvervik, executive vice president for Statoil’s Exploration & Production Norway business area.

“And the necessary modification work promises to help maintain a high level of activity both at Statoil and at our contractors in the time to come.”

Engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contracts worth just over NOK 3.1 billion have already been awarded to Aker Kvaerner, Vetco Aibel and Smedvig.

More than 1,000 people will be involved in work relating to these three assignments, with additional staffing at peak periods.

The modification work required is put at roughly three million hours offshore and three million engineering hours on land, in addition to some prefabrication.

According to the impact assessment for the project, the estimated employment effect will be about 80,000 work-years in 2005-26.

Recovery factors of close to 70 per cent for oil and 75 per cent for gas are expected to be achieved with Statfjord.

Additional recoverable volumes from the late life project are put at 32 billion cubic metres of gas, 25 million barrels of oil and 60 million barrels of condensate.

Tampen Link is a rich gas pipeline which will tie Statfjord to the UK’s Far North Liquids and Gas System (Flags).

Running for just over 23 kilometres, this 32-inch line is due to be laid in 2006 and to become operational on 1 October 2007.

The operatorship for Tampen Link will be transferred from Statoil to Gassco at the same date.