With the Norwegian sector's admirable support from a government that has reenergized its waters with an active licensing program and a national oil company (NOC) that has been strategically investing in both greenfield and brownfield technologies to access new reserves, Norway is acting as the engine room driving continued interest in Europe as an offshore market.

The NOC concerned, Statoil, is stepping up the pace of its exploration and development activity in the frontier Barents Sea while at the same time continuing to find major new reserves in its North Sea acreage.

Its world-class Johan Sverdrup discovery in 2011 shocked many observers who had believed the sector had revealed all its secrets, with recoverable reserves estimated at up to 3.3 Bboe.

Installations powered from shore

Statoil is busy further appraising the field and will make a final investment decision by year-end 2013, while also planning up to 12 further exploration wells over the next three years. With the reservoir covering 180 sq km (69 sq miles), it is expected to feature multiple production and processing platforms as well as the innovative introduction of full electrification of the installations from shore – an initiative driven by the Norwegian Ministry of Energy for all future platforms on the NCS. The capex for the Johan Sverdrup's electrification project alone is estimated to cost around US $1.5 billion. The field itself is expected to come onstream by year-end 2018.

The project is not Statoil's sole focus, of course. It remains concentrated on unlocking the potential of its northern waters – and for those who think this is a recent trend, it is worth pointing out that Statoil has been exploring in the Barents Sea for more than 30 years and has been involved in 88 out of the 92 wells drilled in the area in total.

The company will drill nine wells in 2013 in its Barents Sea acreage as well as tripling its Arctic technology research budget from $14 million (NOK 80 million) this year to $43 million (NOK 250 million) in 2013.

Statoil's exploration executive vice president Tim Dodson said the Barents holds no fears for the operator, describing it recently in a briefing at the Offshore Northern Seas conference in Norway as a "less challenging area, as the Norwegian Barents is one of the only Arctic areas with a year-round ice-free zone."

Concept screening

Statoil is due to start exploration drilling using the West Hercules deepwater rig on the Nunatak prospect in the Skrugard-Havis oilfield area before year-end and will then drill and complete three other wells there over a four-month period on the Skavi, Iskrystall, and Kramsno prospects.

The Skrugard-Havis oil hub project itself is still in the concept screening phase, with Statoil mulling several alternatives for a central floating production facility with subsea wells, including an FPSO or Sevan Marine-design floater with offshore loading or a semisubmersible platform with a pipeline to shore.

The fields lie just 7 km (4 miles) apart, with Skrugard only discovered in April last year and Havis in January 2012. They are estimated to hold between 400 MMbbl and 600 MMbbl of recoverable oil, with any produced gas and water to be reinjected. The development concept will be chosen in 2013, according to Statoil, with a final investment decision in 2014 and first oil by 2018.

A further three wells will then be drilled in the emerging Hoop area further north in the Barents next summer. These will be the northernmost wells ever drilled offshore Norway.

Subsea factory

Statoil's Technology, Projects, and Drilling Executive Vice President Margareth Ovrum is a key figure in the company's push northwards. She has a strong belief in the importance of the "subsea factory" concept as a major potential solution for the Barents Sea and the Arctic as a whole.

Statoil already has made major inroads into establishing this concept, of course, being under way with two major seabed gas compression and boosting projects offshore Norway on its Asgard and Gullfaks fields. "Subsea technology will solve a lot of the challenges," Ovrum told E&P at ONS after one briefing. "We have launched our ambition for a subsea factory by 2020. That is our road map."

She also added that Statoil was developing more robust solutions for both permanent and floating production solutions for its northern seas and the Arctic.

A key technology soon to be added to Norway's offshore tool box is the already well-established spar production platform. Somewhat surprisingly, it is only now that a spar has been selected for use in its waters.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, Statoil has seized the opportunity and taken it further – the first spar on the NCS will be the world's largest (deck weight of 21,000 tonnes; substructure weight of 40,000 tonnes), will be the first with gas condensate storage, and will sit in 1,300 m (4,265 ft) water depth. The facility will be used to develop the Aasta Hansteen field in the northern Norwegian Sea.

'Opportunity enabler'

Statoil describes Aasta Hansteen as an "opportunity enabler," as the facility is planned to act as a hub for future developments, with built-in spare area and weight capacity, riser slots, and subsea tie-in connections. Gas processing capacity has been set at 812 MMcf/d.

These world-class developments in both Norway's mature areas and its emerging northern waters are clear proof that persistence and long-term thinking by both oil companies and national governments can indeed bear fruit.

Comments