Operating costs off the country are estimated to have risen by about 12% per annum in recent years, fuelled by high rig dayrates, ballooning labour salaries, stricter regulation and higher taxes, feeding into the entire supply chain and putting pressure on the margins of oil companies such as Statoil.
As a result, operators have become increasingly cagey about new field investments as the costs hike has compromised the economic viability of frontier projects such as Statoil’s stalled Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea.
Even
