Statoil Submits Trestakk Plan for Development and Operation
Statoil, on behalf of the license holders, has submitted a Plan for Development and Operation of the Trestakk discovery on the Halten Bank to the minister for petroleum and energy, Tord Lien, in Bodø. Capital expenditures are estimated at approximately 5.5 billion NOK. The discovery, made in 1986, contains about 76 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent, mainly oil. The project will be tied back to the Åsgard A oil production vessel, with planned production startup anticipated in 2019. “Trestakk is a good example of what is possible to achieve through spending time on working toward the best concept selection. By rethinking our concept along with license partners and suppliers, we have arrived at a solution that costs almost 50 percent less than the original concept.
Statoil: Gudrun Officially Opened
Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg officially opened the Gudrun platform in the North Sea today, 19 August. This is the first new Statoil-operated platform on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) since Kristin in 2005. Gudrun is the first in a long line of new field developments operated by Statoil, and therefore it represents a new era on the NCS. The next in line is Valemon, which is scheduled for start-up later this year. Gina Krog and Johan Sverdrup on the Utsira High are next in the North Sea.
Norway's Offshore Energy Boom Tailing Off
Norway's energy boom is tailing off years ahead of expectations, exposing an economy unprepared for life after oil and threatening the long-term viability of the world's most generous welfare model. High spending within the sector has pushed up wages and other costs to unsustainable levels, not just for the oil and gas industry but for all sectors, and that is now acting as a drag on further energy investment. Norwegian firms outside oil have struggled to pick up the slack in what has been, for at least a decade, almost a single-track economy. How Norway handles this "curse of oil" - huge wealth that bring unhealthy dependency in its train - may hold lessons across the North Sea in Scotland…
Norway to Relaunch Carbon Capture Plan
Norway's government will this spring launch a strategy to develop technology for capturing and burying heat-trapping emissions from polluting industries, aiming to make good on a pledge to build a full-size plant by 2020. Proponents of carbon capture and storage (CCS) hope the oil-rich nation will join Britain and the Netherlands in funding a handful of schemes to keep Europe from falling behind other major economies in adopting the technology. Europe had once aimed to take a global lead in the development of CCS, which bodies such as the International Energy Agency view as essential to meet a globally agreed goal of limiting temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius.
