Statoil to shut in Gullfaks fields in North Sea for maintenance

LONDON, Oct. 31 -- Statoil ASA will halt production from the Gullfaks A and B platforms in the North Sea for a week for scheduled upgrading and maintenance.

Production from the A platform will halt Thursday and from the B platform on Friday.

The major work on Gullfaks A will be upgrading of the process security systems. The shutdown also will shut in Norsk Hydro AS-operated Vigdis and Visund fields, which produce oil through the Gullfaks pipeline system.

Gullfaks B will halt production due to its dependency on the A platform for processing. Maintenance and modification work that cannot be done while the platform is producing also will be conducted on the B platform, but drilling operations will continue during the shutdown.

Full production from the fields is due to resume Nov. 9. The next turnaround on Gullfaks A and B is planned for the autumn of 2002.

Gullfaks is on Block 34/10 in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.