Statoil to develop gas discovery near Aasta Hansteen field

Norway’s Statoil has decided to develop the Snefrid Nord gas discovery near the Aasta Hansteen field in the Norwegian Sea.

The discovery, scheduled to come on stream in late 2019, will be tied back to Aasta Hansteen, Statoil informed on Thursday.

The authorities therefore on Thursday received a supplement to the Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) of the Aasta Hansteen field describing the Snefrid Nord development.

Aker Solutions, the supplier of subsea equipment for the Aasta Hansteen development, will also deliver the single-slot subsea template, a suction anchor and umbilicals for the Snefrid Nord development, Statoil said. The subsea template and suction anchor mooring it to the seabed will be delivered by Aker Solutions at Sandnessjøen.

“We are pleased to see that Snefrid Nord generates spin-offs and activities at Helgelandskysten,” says Torolf Christensen, project director for Snefrid Nord and Aasta Hansten.

The umbilicals will be delivered by Aker Solutions in Moss.

Furthermore, Subsea 7 will deliver flowlines and spools in addition to performing all subsea installations. The firm is also the supplier for Aasta Hansteen, and by using the same supplier for both projects Statoil expects to capture synergies, the oil company explained in the statement on Thursday.

All contracts are subject to Ministry of Petroleum and Energy approval of the supplement to the Aasta Hansteen PDO.

Snefrid Nord was discovered in 2015. Recoverable reserves are estimated at about five billion cubic meters of gas. The development concept includes one well in a single-slot subsea template. This will be tied back to the Aasta Hansteen platform through the Luva template six kilometers away. Snefrid Nord will produce some four million cubic meters of gas per day in the plateau phase, the planned productive life being 5-6 years.

The capital expenditures for the Snefrid Nord development total about NOK 1.2 billion ($143.2 million).

Siri Espedal Kindem, senior vice president for operations north in Statoil, said: “Aasta Hansteen is a strategically important development as the platform and Polarled pipeline open a new area in the Norwegian Sea for gas exports to Europe. The projects also establish a new infrastructure, which will create opportunities for future field development projects in the area. Snefrid Nord is an excellent example of this.”

Statoil is the operator with an interest of 51 percent. The partners are Wintershall Norge (24%), OMV Norge (15%), and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia (10%).

The latest milestone for the Statoil-operated Aasta Hansteen development was the upending of the massive substructure, which began on Monday in Klosterfjorden on the west coast of Norway.