Martin Linge Finds 'on Menu' for Total
Thursday 3 August 2017
Total has reportedly received a commercial boost for its troubled Martin Linge field development project off Norway after gaining the official green light to tap a pair of satellite finds that will lift reserves.
The French operator estimates the Herja and Hervor discoveries will add around 55 million barrels of oil equivalent in producible reserves and can be brought online via the field’s platform without any modifications to the facility, according to a letter from the Petroleum & Energy Ministry cited by Norwegian publication Petro.no.
The ministry stated production from the finds can start simultaneously with start-up of the main field, now delayed by a year to the first half of 2019, and “will contribute to improved profitability… through increased reserves and optimisation of the well strategy”.
Total has been forced to postpone the launch of the project by a year after a fatal accident at South Korean yard Samsung Heavy Industries earlier this year in which six workers were killed when a crane collapsed during construction work on modules for the platform.
Construction of the facility was halted for about a month following the May accident, adding to earlier work delays due to other factors including slower-than-expected engineering progress.
As a result, Total will be unable to carry out platform installation this summer as planned and this work will have to be carried out in the next available weather window in summer 2018.
Martin Linge was originally due on stream late last year and the field project was running about 26% over budget at Nkr35.5 billion ($4.2 billion) in official figures released last October, a figure that could increase further with the latest delays.
In the 2012 plan for development and operation of the oil and gas field, Total assumed the project would break even at an oil price of $59 per barrel.
The operator has needed to add more resources to make up for the cost overruns, according to Norway-based energy research firm Rystad Energy, which has estimated the current break-even oil price for the project at $73 per barrel.
Resources are presently estimated at 189 million barrels of oil equivalent at the field, operated by Total with a 51% stake with state-controlled partners Petoro and Statoil on 30% and 19%, respectively.