The partners in the Norwegian Sea Åsgard licence have made an investment decision to develop the Smørbukk North-East field as a satellite to the Åsgard B platform. Production is expected to start in December 2011.

Recoverable reserves of oil, gas and condensate on Smørbukk North-East are estimated at around 16 million barrels of oil equivalent. The expected development investment is close to NOK one billion.

'From sanctioning to start-up of the project we will need 13-14 months,' says project manager Helge Rivelsrud. 'This will be one of the fastest developments ever in the Norwegian Sea.'

The development will increase the future oil and gas production via Åsgard B and provides opportunities for developing new finds in the area.

'Åsgard is a hub on the Halten Bank and the development of Smørbukk North-East shows how we can realise new production quickly when we have processing capacity available in the area,' says Ståle Tungesvik, Statoil's head of reserve replacement and business development.

The early start-up is possible by using an existing exploration well as a production well. Subsea equipment originally built for the Sigrid field and owned by the licence will furthermore be modified and applied.

'The modifications on Åsgard B will be small since we can hook up to an existing template,' indicates Rivelsrud.

The original plan called for a Smørbukk North-East start-up in 2013. But since then the project has escalated and start-up is now scheduled for December 2011.

Partners in Smørbukk North-East: Statoil (operator) (34.57%), Petoro (35.69%), Eni Norge (14.82%), ExxonMobil (7.24%) and Total (7.68%).

Tags: Statoil