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Offshore staff

STAVANGER, Norway -- GDF Suez will produce almost 50 MMboe this year, said president Jean-Francois Cirelli at ONS today. The recently merged Franco-Belgian utility has also lifted its reserves to nearly 700 MMboe, spread mainly between the North Sea, Germany, and North Africa.

Half the reserves are in Norwegian fields, Cirelli said. The company established an upstream presence in Norway 10 years ago, and is investing Eu500 million a year in various development projects, much of it in Gjoa in the North Sea. GDF Norge currently employs a staff of 100, but plans further recruits to help service Gjoa.

In the Barents Sea, the company is a partner in the Snohvit development, which has suffered cost overruns and numerous interruptions since coming onstream last year. Cirelli ascribed these troubles to the fact that "Snohvit is a very complex project, involving construction of the first gas liquefaction plant above the Arctic Circle."

"The difficulties are more or less behind us now, however, and we are aiming to find the right capacity for the plant - we hope this will be the case by summer 2009."

08/27/2008