Offshore staff

OSLO, Norway – Statoil Petroleum has authorization from Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) Norway to extend use of the Statfjord B platform in the North Sea beyond its design lifetime.

Statfjord is an oil field that straddles the median line dividing the Norwegian and UK sectors in the Tampen area. The platform, on the southern part of the field, began producing in 1982.

Statoil applied a 20-year lifetime extension from end-August 2011.

PSA has also approved Statoil’s request to use the semisub Transocean Leader for well abandonments.

The company plans permanent plugback and abandonment of wells 31/5-B-5 H and 31/5-B-6 H on the Troll Oseberg Gas Injection (TOGI) subsea facility in the North Sea.

Work could start this month, and should take around 85 days to complete.

2/20/2012