There will be fewer stand-alone development projects on Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) in the next few years, whereas the number of satellite fields and maintenance investments will increase.

"Access to attractive areas in unopened areas may modify this picture somewhat, but we as an industry must still adapt to the new realities," Ståle Tungesvik, senior vice president for reserves and business development in Statoil, said at ECON's round-table conference/NCS operators forum today.

In his speech Tungesvik presented the main features of Statoil's investment portfolio.

"The 2009 investments have been record high. Statoil's goal is to sustain production on the NCS at the current level in the years ahead."

"Achieving this goal will still result in a high activity level offshore for us as an operator in the next few years ," Tungesvik said.

Many important decisions must be made by Statoil in the next few years.

"We are continuously working on our project portfolio, the aim being to realise the development of fields such as Gudrun, Valemon, Dagny and Luva. These are small-size fields in a historical perspective and the challenge is to make the projects profitable."

"As the operator, it is also our task to create solutions that our partners can support. In turbulent times this requires a lot of us as the operator, and finding solutions may also take longer than our surroundings may expect," Tungesvik maintained.

"We very much want to accomplish the development of the Luva field. This may contribute to new infrastructure in the Norwegian Sea. Åsgard Transport is approaching the capacity limit and in order for exploration for new resources in this area to be realistic new infrastructure with free capacity is required.

In addition to these projects Statoil is considering a great number of small-size projects.

Tags: Statoil