Norway: Statoil*s Snorre Field Holds Enough Oil For Production until 2040

All of 900 million barrels of oil equivalents on Snorre confirm Statoil’s faith in another 30 years’ production on Tampen.

The Statfjord, Gullfaks and Snorre fields form the backbone for production on Tampen in the North Sea.

“On Statfjord we have 30 years’ oil production behind us. Snorre can give us the opportunity of continuing to make history on Tampen for another 30 years,” says Torstein Hole, senior vice president for Operations West, who points to new Snorre area studies conducted by Statoil.

“We have concluded an extensive survey of the Snorre area. The volume potential is some 900 million barrels of oil equivalents. There’s enough oil for production on the Snorre field until 2040. The question is whether we should refurbish our existing platforms or build a new platform,” says Hole.

In the summer of 2010 the partnership decided to carry out thorough studies of all the concepts. The plan is to reach a concept decision during 2011.

The level of activity on Snorre is high in order to secure the maximum utilisation of resources in coming years. The Snorre area is one of the priority areas for fast track-expansions in Statoil.

Vigdis north-east, which was discovered in 2009, has been chosen as one of four fast-track projects in Statoil. The aim is for Vigdis north-east to provide Snorre with additional resources from 2012.

Statoil and its partners on Snorre have also decided to invest NOK 1.8 billion in a new pipeline between Snorre A and Snorre B. The pipeline will enable Snorre A oil to be piped to Statfjord B for storage and export to the market from 2012 onwards.

The current situation, whereby Snorre A oil is piped to Statfjord A for storage and export, will no longer be possible from 2012 if Statfjord A production is terminated.

Facts about Snorre:

* Snorre platforms A and B constitute the fourth biggest oil producer on the Norwegian continental shelf.

* Snorre is the field with the second largest reserves on the Norwegian continental shelf.

* one of Statoil’s fields on the Norwegian continental shelf contain more reserves than the Snorre field.

* The original reserve estimate for Snorre was 760 million barrels of oil.

* The current reserve estimate has doubled to 1.5 billion barrels.

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Source: Statoil, August 26, 2010: