By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 21 -- Statoil submitted to Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy a 5.6 billion kroner development and operations plan for Visund South, which consists of the Pan and Pandora oil and gas discoveries about 10 km from both the Gullfaks C and Visund A platforms, off Norway.
The plan calls for developing Visund South with three wells on a four-well slot subsea template tied back to the Gullfaks C platform. Statoil expects to start drilling the wells in summer 2011 and complete the drilling in 2012.
Pan and Pandora, discovered in 2008 and 2009, are in 290 m of water and contain an estimated 67 million boe (1/3 oil and 2/3 gas) in reservoirs at 2,900 m below the seabed. Reservoir pressure is about 340 bar.
Statoil expects oil and gas production to start in third-quarter 2012 and continue for more than 15 years.
Visund South is the first in Statoil's portfolio of fast-track developments and the project went from an opportunity to an investment decision in just 1 year, Statoil said. Contracts let include:
• Pipeline, April 2010 to Sumitomo (Japan Steel Works).
• Subsea installations, June 2010 to FMC Technologies Inc.
• Marine operations and modifications on Gullfaks C, autumn 2010 to Subsea 7 Ltd.
• Topside modifications on Gullfaks C, December 2010 to Aibel AS, with work starting in summer 2011.
Statoil as operator holds 53.2% interest in Visund South. Its partners are Total E&P Norge AS 7.7%, Petoro AS 30%, and ConocoPhllips Skandinavia AS 9.1%.
US Department of the Interior.
File photo from PDVSA..
