Norway’s Statoil and its partners have decided to invest over NOK5 billion (US$642 million) to develop the Askeladd field, which is part two of the multi-phased Snøhvit development in the Barents Sea.
Norway’s Statoil and its partners have decided to invest over NOK5 billion (US$642 million) to develop the Askeladd field, which is part two of the multi-phased Snøhvit development in the Barents Sea.
The Askeladd development plan will provide feedstock for the LNG plant at Melkøya in Hammerfest. It will supply 21 billion cubic metres of gas and two million cubic metres of condensate to Hammerfest LNG, and production is scheduled to come on stream towards the end of 2020.
“This is the next step in the development of Snøhvit. Askeladd will help maintain a plateau production rate at the Hammerfest LNG plant until 2023 and is a profitable investment that will help secure jobs and ripple effects in the region,” says Torger Rød, Statoil’s senior vice president for project development.
Askeladd will be developed with three wells via two new subsea templates with space for additional wells in the future. In addition, an infrastructure will be installed to tie-in the Askeladd development to existing Snøhvit field infrastructure.
“The Snøhvit licence contains enough gas to maintain production beyond 2050, and Hammerfest LNG will provide jobs for many years to come,” added Per Henry Gonsholt, acting production director at Hammerfest LNG.
“Operation of Hammerfest LNG at Melkøya requires new, profitable gas volumes to be phased-in at the right time in the period leading up to 2050,” Siri Espedal Kindem, senior vice president for operation north noted.
Statoil operates the Snøhvit development with 36.79 per cent stake while other partners include Petoro with 30 per cent stake, Total with 18.40 per cent interest, Neptune Energy Norge with 12 per cent stake and DEA Norge with 2.81 per cent interest.
Source: Pipeline ME
