Maturation of the technology that will enable full processing and production of hydrocarbons on the seabed remains a moving target, although there is growing confidence within the contractor community that all the necessary components for a subsea factory could be in place ahead of Statoil’s goal of 2020 for start-up of such a facility.
The Norwegian player was forced to rule out a sole subsea development of its Johan Castberg (formerly Skrugard-Havis) discovery in the Barents, due on stream in 2018, due to the “large technology gap”.
Statoil’s
