Statoil to Fast Track Visund North

06 December 2011

The marginal field, with recoverable reserves of about 29 million barrels of oil equivalent, will be exploited as a subsea tieback to the Visund A platform with production set to come online in 2013.

It will be produced using two wells in a standard subsea template being fabricated by FMC Technologies, with installation scheduled for summer 2012.

Most of the major contracts for the project have been awarded, with the outstanding awards for marine installation and platform modifications set to land before the end of the year, Statoil said.

The investment decision on the field in Statoil-operated Production Licence 120 makes it the seventh fast-track project to be approved this year by the Norwegian state oil company, which said it could open the way to develop other resources in the northern Visund area.

The move re-opens part of the acreage where production was stopped in 2006.

Earlier this year, Statoil decided to fast track the Visund South field as a tieback to the Gullfaks platform.

The company aims to have five fast-track fields up and running in late 2012 or early 2013, and to deliver five fast-track projects a year thereafter.