Statoil Calls a Halt to Snohvit Expansion

Statoil has announced today that a possible capacity expansion on the Norwegian Snohvit licence has been halted and will not expand unless new gas discoveries are made at the field.

The company says that it and its partners on the field have studied the possible expansion of the export capacity of the field over the last 18 months, an LNG train II and a dew-point facility/pipeline solution construction were each considered as potential expansion tools. These tools would have enabled the accelerated gas production of increased reserves in the licence as well as existing gas discoveries in the licence, Statoil said.

However, the company said today that it would considered increasing the export capacity of the Snohvit field only if new discoveries were made. Statoil will now instead concentrate its efforts on upgrading its existing LNG facility (Train 1) and developing the field through phases 2-4 for Train 1.

The planned upgrade will also see the partners installing five new subsea templates and a total of 12 production wells. 

"There will be major investments associated with phases 2 – 4, which include the development of Askeladd [field] and a future compression solution," executive vice president for Development and production Norway for Statoil, Øystein Michelsen, said today.

Statoil is the operator of the Snohvit licence with a 36.79 per cent stake. Petoro holds the next largest stake of 30 per cent. Total E&P Norge holds an 18.40 per cent stake, GDF SUEZ E&P Norge a 12 per cent stake while RWE Dea Norge holds a 2.81 per cent stake.