Norway sanctions Oseberg Vestflanken 2

June 14, 2016
Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has sanctioned the plan for development and operation of Oseberg Vestflanken 2 in the North Sea.

Offshore staff

STAVANGER, Norway– Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has sanctioned the plan for development and operation of Oseberg Vestflanken 2 in the North Sea.

The development consists of anunmanned wellhead platform with 10 well slots. In addition, two existing subsea wells will be reused. All wells will be remote-controlled from the Oseberg field center and will be drilled by the new Category J rig Askepott, which is currently under construction. It is owned by the Oseberg license.

Cost is projected at NOK 8.2 billion ($982 million), and it is expected to recover 110 MMboe. Production is scheduled to start in 2Q 2018 and last until 2040.

Wellhead platforms with no facilities, helicopter deck, or lifeboats represent a new solution in Norway, but it has been thoroughly tested in other areas, such as the Danish and Dutch continental shelves.

Torger Rød, Statoil’s senior vice president for project management, said: “Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is a pioneer project of great strategic importance. This new concept has been required to meet the high safety standards established for installations on the Norwegian continental shelf.”

Aiming to cut investment costs throughout the engineering phase, Statoil has reduced the break-even price of the project by about 30% thanks to reduced capex and successful maturing of the resource base, thus increasing volumes. According to Statoil, this makes the project resilient, even in a low oil price environment.

Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is the first of three planned phases for developing the remaining reserves in the Oseberg area. The licensees are:Statoil (operator and 49.3%), Petoro (33.6%), Total (14.7%), and ConocoPhillips (2.4%).

06/14/2016

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