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Friday, 21 November, 2008, 18:50 GMT | more >>

Norne new lease of life



By Upstream staff 

Commercial discoveries and promising new prospects near Norne mean that the Norwegian Sea field is likely to continue producing longer than earlier thought, operator Statoil said.

“A lot of exploration is planned for the Norne area,” said Jostein Gaasemyr, Statoil's operations vice president for the field. “What we know so far means that activity will be extended both offshore and on land. We’re heading for an exciting time.”

The field, which was brought on stream in 1997 with five subsea templates via the Norne floating production, storage and offloading vessel, was expected to operate until 2016. However, increased knowledge of the area means the vessel is likely to stay in business until around 2020.

Urd was tied back to the vessel as a satellite last year, strengthening capacity utilisation both for the ship and for its associated infrastructure. An additional subsea template was also installed in 2005 in order to improve recovery from the main field.

Further development of the surrounding area is attracting great interest, with oil proven in the Linerle and Falk structures two years ago. Two exploration wells are due to be drilled this summer on the Valkyrie structure just over 30 kilometres to the north-east of Norne.

Further discoveries could strengthen prospects for an independent development solution, with a platform supplementing the existing production ship.

Gas was also proven in 1990 in Alve, 16 kilometres south-west of Norne. A new well is due to be drilled this autumn to see whether more resources might be found deeper in the formations. That well will also be used as a producer tied back to Norne for the existing discovery, with gas set to start flowing in October 2008.

The intention is to submit a plan for development and operation of Alve to the Norwegian authorities by the end of October this year.

Monday, 26 June, 2006, 13:03 GMT  | last updated: Monday, 26 June, 2006, 13:03 GMT

Expansion: the Norne FPSO
 

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