Statoil and its partners have decided to move forward with the Nkr3.5 billion ($600m) development of the Smorbukk South Extension project as a subsea satellite to the Aasgard field in the Norwegian Sea, upstreamonline.com reported on Tuesday.
The Norwegian state-owned operator plans to exploit recoverable resources of 16.5 million barrels of oil equivalent at the discovery, made in 1985, using a subsea tieback to the Aasgard A floating production, storage and offloading vessel.
Statoil said in a statement it now intends to award several contracts on the project, after Nexans was handed the umbilicals award last year.
“With the investment decision for Smorbukk South Extension, another piece in the puzzle is now in place for the development of the Aasgard field,” said project manager Ola Gussiaas.
“The project will contribute to the prolonged lifetime on Aasgard A and will facilitate the development of other projects and prospects in the area.”
Statoil has finally been able to mature the find to an investment decision due to experience gained on Aasgard and the availability of existing facilities, according to its Aasgard asset owner Astrid Helga Jorgenvaag.
The scheme for increased oil recovery is part of Statoil’s effort to maximise extraction of oil and gas resources at mature producing fields using standardised subsea building blocks tied into existing infrastructure.
Smorbukk will produce from a single multilateral well with two producing branches while a new subsea template will be installed with available slots for future wells.
Jorgenvaag added that new well technology would be considered to maximise recovery from the Smorbukk South reservoir.