Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – EIC’s report “An Overview of the UK and Norwegian Oil & Gas Sectors” found projects with a total investment value of $178 billion are currently being proposed for development or are under development in the UK and Norwegian North Sea.
The report showed the UK has 168 offshore projects being proposed for development or currently under development with an investment value of $72.75 billion. Norway has 117 offshore projects being proposed for development or currently under development with an investment value of $106 billion.
The report found that the FPSO/FSO/FPU market remains strong with a potential total investment value for FPSO-related projects of $22.55 billion offshore Norway, and $28 billion offshore the UK. There are 20 FPSO-related projects in the UK and 11 in Norway’s offshore sectors.
The subsea market also remains strong, according to the EIC, with investments in current and proposed developments estimated to be $50 billion in the UK sector and in the region of $62 billion in Norway. Key developments include the Skarv, Snadd and Idun oil and gas fields, offshore Norway, and the Laggan and Tormore gas and condensate fields.
Other key issues detected in the report included the significant fast-tracking of projects, with considerable opportunities for the energy supply chain, more exploration activity being seen in the Norway than in the UK, and the growth of smaller players.
The report found that Statoil remains at the forefront of the fast-tracking of new projects as the operator tries to get some smaller discoveries online as quickly as possible. Two such examples are the Krafla oil discovery and Visund South oil and gas field. The Krafla field was discovered in May 2011, and is due to go online in 2013; and the Visund South oil and gas field is due to go into production in 2012 with the value of the project $962 million.
The report also noted that Norway is currently leading the way in new discoveries. One discovery which could be potentially significant, the EIC notes, is the Skrugard oil and gas discovery, where Statoil is the operator and where the distance from the nearest land is 200 km (124 mi).
In addition, the recently revised estimates for the Aldous and Avaldsnes oil discoveries in the North Sea at between 500 MMboe and 1.2 Bboe make the field potentially the largest find on the NCS since the 1980s.
Finally, the report noted the growth of smaller players in the UK offshore sector who are having a key impact. Examples include the Lancaster and Whirlwind oil discoveries west of Shetland, operated by Hurricane Exploration; Orlando oil field on the UKCS which was originally discovered by Chevron and where the operator is now MPX; and the Bentley heavy oil field, again on the UKCS, where the operator is Xcite Energy.
Data for the report, presented at Offshore Europe, was sourced from the EIC’s database, EIC DataStream, which tracks more than 8,700 active and future projects in the energy industry worldwide.
09/06/2011
