Located in what domestic operator Statoil has termed the “workable Arctic”, the southern part of the Barents Sea is ice-free year-round and has water depths down to about 350 metres. About 110 exploration wells have been drilled in the area since Norway opened it for exploration in 1980.
The region is already home to Statoil’s producing Snohvit gas field, developed as a subsea field linked to an onshore LNG facility, and Eni’s Goliat oil field, expected to come on stream in 2014 or 2015 using a Sevan Marine-designed cylindrical floating production, storage and offloading unit.
According
