Partners jostle for Sverdrup split

Solutions: Statoil project director Oivind Reinertsen

OYVIND HAGEN/STATOIL

By BEATE SCHJOLBERG Oslo

 30 August 2012 22:59 GMT

THE owners of the giant Norwegian Johan Sverdrup discovery are bracing for tough negotiations when all five companies with interests in the two or three affected licences sit down to hammer out a split of the entire field.

With estimated volumes of between 1.7 billion and 3.3 billion barrels, every decimal point will represent huge sums for the companies and their owners.

Johan Sverdrup straddles two main licences — the eastern PL 501, where operator Lundin Petroleum and Statoil have 40% each and Danish player Maersk has 20%, and the western PL 265, where operator Statoil has 40%, state-owned Petoro 30%, independent Det Norske Oljeselskap 20% and Lundin 10%.

A small part of the field may also cross into PL 502, where Statoil has 44.4%, Petoro 33.3% and Det Norske 22.2%.

Although…

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