Snefrid Nord in Statoil sights
Thursday 17 November 2016
Statoil is apparently pushing for a fast-track development of its Snefrid Nord discovery for possible exploitation as a subsea tieback to the Aasta Hansteen field platform in the Norwegian Sea.
The state-owned operator has been engaged in preliminary talks with Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to present its plans to develop the gas find, which was estimated to hold between 31 million and 57 million barrels of oil equivalent when it was made last year.
Statoil is looking to take advantage of present low contractor prices and benefit from drilling and facility synergies on Aasta Hansteen to minimise capital expenditure for the proposed project, which is seen taking place in the 2017-to-2019 timeframe.
While details of the Snefrid Nord development concept have been withheld, it is likely to entail a single subsea template tied back to the giant spar platform being built at South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries (left) for the deep-water Aasta Hansteen field currently under development.
The facility - the world's largest spar and the first such platform off Norway - is due for installation in early 2018, ready for delayed field start-up in the second half of that year.
It is hoped exploitation of the satellite find would improve the business case and overall value of the Nkr37 billion ($4.4 billion) Aasta Hansteen field, as well as extend plateau production by about one year to allow more time to mature other finds in the area, according to Statoil’s presentation to the PSA.
Snefrid Nord would also utilise available processing capacity on the platform and boost throughput for the Polarled export pipeline built at a cost Nkr22.4 billion, which has been shared by Statoil and other operators as part of a joint project to serve area-wide fields.
Statoil is keen to bring to fruition nearby finds to strengthen the commercial framework for Aasta Hansteen as low commodity prices and a lack of viability of local fields have threatened project economics.
Shell has earlier axed plans to develop the nearby Linnorm gas discovery while Statoil has also cancelled its Kristin gas export project and put on hold development of its Asterix find – though the latter could be revived at a later date.
However, Dea is moving forward with development of its Dvalin gas and condensate find – formerly named Zidane – that will be tapped as a subsea tieback to Statoil’s Heidrun platform, with gas being exported via Polarled to the Nyhamna onshore processing plant.