Statoil Aims to Further Reduce Castberg Costs

Norwegian oil major Statoil plans to cut the estimated cost of developing its Arctic Johan Castberg oilfield by another 4 billion Norwegian crowns ($491.53 million), project director Erik Strand Tellefsen told an energy conference on Wednesday.

In January Statoil announced it had cut the cost of developing Castberg to between 50-60 billion Norwegian crowns from an initial estimate of around 100 billion.

"Our ambition is to cut by a further four billion," Strand Tellefsen said.

Norway's state-owned Petoro and Italy's ENI are partners in the field.


($1 = 8.1378 Norwegian crowns)

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, writing by Terje Solsvik, editing by Ole Petter Skonnord)