Equinor and its partners in the Statfjord area have approved plans to extend production from the field towards 2040.
On 9 January 2020, Equinor announced that a new business plan will ensure even higher use of resources, extract more value from the field, and allow plans for decommissioning of the Statfjord A platform in 2022 to be deferred.
Equinor notes that, based on extensive mapping of the underground, the remaining potential of the Statfjord area is still considerable. As a result, Equinor and its partners have resolved a new business plan for the Statfjord main field and satellite fields.
Vår Energi, Spirit Energy Norway, Petoro, Idemitsu Petroleum Norway, and Wintershall Dea Norge are partners in the Statfjord area, Equinor is operator.
Statfjord A was scheduled for decommissioning in 2022, however, the field life will now be extended to 2027. The lives of Statfjord B and C will also be extended beyond 2035.
“We have a responsibility to society and our owners for realising the full value potential from our producing fields on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS),” said Executive Vice President for the Norwegian continental shelf in Equinor, Arne Sigve Nylund.
“Statfjord is a world-class oil and gas field that has supplied the world with huge amounts of energy. The field has created high value and been a cornerstone in the development of the entire Norwegian petroleum industry. It is, therefore, a pleasure to see that we, together with our partners in the area, can extend the production period and continue the value creation.”
The new plan calls for extending Statfjord production by maturing new reserves for recovery and making necessary upgrading of the platforms, strongly increasing field activity.
Roughly 100 new wells are planned to be drilled towards 2030. The wells will help reach a goal of maintaining the current production level from Statfjord beyond 2025.
This will require considerable investments and upgrading of the three platforms.
While new wells and extended production will increase revenue, Equinor notes that it will continue to improve operations to keep costs at a low level.
In order to strengthen the Statfjord field, it is expected that operations will be reorganised and a new late-life unit will be established.
Equinor proposes that the new unit will develop new ways of working for safe and efficient operation with low carbon emissions from late-life fields on the NCS.
The new unit will be central in securing optimal recovery of resources from Equinor’s oil and gas fields on the NCS.
The new late-life unit will also have responsibility for the decommissioning projects for the Veslefrikk and Heimdal installations.
In preparing the new late-life unit and a new business plan for Statfjord the management of Equinor has cooperated with all five trade unions in the company: Industri Energi, SAFE, NITO, Tekna and Lederne.
Furthermore, the new Statfjord effort includes a plan for keeping CO2 emissions ‘as low as possible’ through the late-life period, to ensure that Statfjord is operating well within the limit of Equinor’s new NCS climate ambition.
The company notes that during the next five years, CO2 emissions per produced barrel from the field will be halved due to higher production, compared to ending the production earlier.
Several operational measures for increased energy efficiency have also been identified to maintain a constant level of energy consumption, in a period with increased activity level.
Towards 2030, Equinor will realise energy efficiency measures and consolidate infrastructure to reduce absolute emissions from Statfjord by more than 40 per cent.
This means that climate emissions from Statfjord will be aligned with Equinor’s new climate ambition for the NCS, to reduce absolute emissions in Norway by 40 per cent within 2030, 70 per cent by 2040 and close to zero by 2050.
Additional information about Statfjord:
- Statfjord was discovered by Mobil in 1974. Statoil, now Equinor, took over the operatorship on 1 January 1987.
- Recently celebrating 40 years of production, Statfjord is the biggest oil field ever on the Norwegian continental shelf, containing close to 9 billion barrels of oil equivalents.
- The Statfjord area covers the following licences: Statfjord Unit (or Statfjord main field), Statfjord Øst Unit, Statfjord Nord (PL 037) and Sygna Unit. The Statfjord Unit development covers the big Statfjord A, B and C concrete gravity base platforms, the other fields are subsea developments tied back to the main field platforms. Equinor is operator for all licences.
- Through targeted work, Equnior and its partners have achieved world-class use of resources and produced almost 6 billion barrels from the main field and satellite fields combined.
- Every year, 4000-5000 man-years can be directly or indirectly linked to Statfjord. Since the field came on stream, Statfjord has created more than 200,000 jobs.
- Statfjord oil production is loaded onto shuttle tankers on the field and shipped to many ports in north-western Europe.
