Norway's Statoil and its partners on production license 218 in the Norwegian Sea have made a gas discovery close to the Aasta Hansteen development.
The Snefrid Nord discovery, estimated to contain 31-57 MMboe, will increase the Aasta Hansteen field development resource base by around 15% and improve the new-build Polarled pipeline utilization, said Statoil.
Snefrid Nord is in the deep-water Vøring area, close to the three gas discoveries which comprise the Aasta Hansteen field development: Luva, Haklang and Snefrid South.
The discovery well 6706/12-2, drilled by Transocean Spitsbergen, proved a 105m gas column in the Nise Formation.
Statoil is due to drill a second exploration well in the vicinity of Aasta Hansteen following Snefrid Nord to increase upside in the area. The semisubmersible drilling rig Transocean Spitsbergen will move to the neighboring PL602 and drill an exploration well in the Roald Rygg prospect.
“The Snefrid Nord discovery increases the resource base for the Aasta Hansteen field development project by around 15%,” says Irene Rummelhoff, senior vice president exploration Norway in Statoil.
“Near-field exploration is the main focus of our Norwegian continental shelf exploration program in 2015. By proving additional timely resources, we extend the production life of our fields and create significant value,” explains Rummelhoff.
Aasta Hansteen will be the largest SPAR platform in the world and is the biggest ongoing field development project in the Norwegian Sea. It is one of the main projects in Statoil’s portfolio. The plan for development and operations (PDO) was approved by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in 2013. Production start-up is expected in 2017.
The investments in Aasta Hansteen and the Polarled pipeline total US$9.2 billion (NOK57 billion). Hyundai Heavy Industries is constructing the spar and targets to have it ready for tow-out in the summer of 2016, and mechanical completed late 2016. Technip has the contract for the substructure engineering on the spar.
The Aasta Hansteen Spar will be the world’s largest spar platform and the first of its kind on the NCS. Furthermore, the spar will be the first ever deepwater floating production platform (+1000m) installed in the harsh environment north of the Arctic Circle utilizing steel catenary risers.
Statoil is operator on Snefrid Nord with 51% interest alongside partners are Wintershall Norge (24%), OMV (Norge) (15%) and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia (10%).
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