Statoil has begun production from the Topas discovery in the North Sea. The field, proven last November with a long well drilled from the Gullfaks C platform, contains just over 10 MMbbl in estimated recoverable oil reserves. The combined exploration and production well will produce oil and associated gas through the C platform's processing facilities.

A pilot production phase, lasting no more than six months and recovering 3 MMbbl of oil, has been approved by Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. Work is also underway to establish permanent production from the discovery.

"Results so far are extremely encouraging," Eirik Graue, project manager for the Topas well, says. "Based on the pilot production phase, we'll consider drilling more wells in this area to recover additional reserves and hopefully prove further resources."

Statoil believes exploring in the vicinity of existing installations is important because it will ensure that as much of the remaining resources as possible is recovered in mature areas.

Located between Gullfaks and Visund, the Topas discovery was made with exploration well 34/10-48 S, drilled to a total measured length of 7,393 m.

2/23/05