From the North Sea (NT): Eni has failed to meet the regulatory deadline for proposing a gas export solution for the Goliat field (SEN, 30/13) in the Norwegian Barents Sea.

This should have been submitted to the authorities no later than two years before start-up, which, after one postponement, is now set for Q3 2014 (29/11). The company has yet to select a solution, although it says it hopes to do so before long. The solution then has to be fully approved by the Norwegian authorities before start-up.

Limited choice
Like other companies with gas reserves in the Barents, Eni faces a lack of infrastructure and options – as does its Goliat partner Statoil, which like Eni plans initially to reinject gas in its Johan Castberg field (30/13), but has also not yet revealed a plan for its eventual export. Castberg, though, is not due onstream until 2018 at the earliest.

One option for Eni is to pipe the gas to Statoil’s LNG plant at Melkøya, tapping into the existing Snøhvit-Melkøya pipeline. However, although Eni declined to comment on this point, it seems that the gas would have to be part of the feed for a second LNG train and, a year or so ago, the Melkøya partners decided to postpone a decision until sufficient supplies became available.

A gas pipeline running from the Barents to the Norwegian Sea or North Sea is another possibility, but again this would not be built until there were sufficient supplies to make it economically viable.

On Eni’s behalf, Gassco, the national pipeline operator, has studied gas export by ship in the form of compressed natural gas (CNG). Recently, Gassco has completed another study for Eni on gas export solutions, although Eni declines to comment on it.

Goliat contains an estimated 8bcm of gas, in addition to 176mmbbl of oil.

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