Norway: Statoil Seeks Buyers for Huldra Platform

Norway: Statoil Seeks Buyers for Huldra Platform

The Huldra field is being depleted. What’s left is a fully adequate and solid platform. Any buyers? Must a platform be scrapped after use? Couldn’t it be moved to a new area? The Huldra platform has been producing in the North Sea since 2001, and is still a modern platform with many possibilities. The field is scheduled to be shut down around 2014/2015. Instead of scrapping the platform after use, Statoil now wants to resell it for use on new fields.

“The platform has been on stream for some ten years, and is therefore in a very good condition. When it can be reused, why scrap it? For a buyer, this may mean quicker and cheaper development of a field than if a brand new platform must be built. Reuse will also have substantial environmental benefits,” says Shahnaz Jafargholi, project manager of the Huldra sale project in Statoil.

Statoil has previously looked at the possibility of reusing the platform on the Valemon field, but concluded that the platform is too small.

Statoil’s infrastructure-led exploration strategy, putting small-size pockets of oil and gas on stream towards existing infrastructure, requires installations capable of receiving this production. When the Valemon platform is online, Statoil envisages using this as a basis for more exploration in the area, which the company is already well acquainted with, and investing more in new enhanced recovery technology aimed at squeezing the last drops of oil from the wells.

A solid platform

Huldra has been a HPHT field, i.e. it’s a high-pressure, high-temperature reservoir. The platform is therefore designed to tolerate such strains. Statoil envisages selling the platform as a whole, or in parts.

“The jacket and topsides can be sold separately or in combination. We’re also looking at the possibilities of selling some parts separately, such as the compressor etc. This, however, is regarded as an alternative plan if we do not find a buyer for the entire platform.

[mappress]
Source:Statoil , October 19, 2011