Norway's parliament, the Storting, has been presented with a white paper detailing the problems state firm Statoil AS ran into with its Åsgard fields development.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy recently ousted the board of Statoil (see related story, p. 31), after it was revealed that the current Åsgard development would exceed its budget of 28.5 billion kroner ($3.67 billion) by 17 billion kroner ($2.19 billion).
While Statoil has admitted for some time that the Åsgard project had fallen foul of "over-optimistic" budget estimates, a ministry official told OGJ that, despite the latest revision of costs estimates, "We can't yet guarantee the final numbers."
Following the board's dismissal, Statoil Chief Executive Harald Norvik and Deputy Chief Executive Terje Vareberg both offered to resign, in a gesture signaling their willingness to take responsibility for the costs hike.
Meanwhile, a new seven-person Statoil board has been elected, led by Chairman Ole Lund, also chairman of the Oslo Stock Exchange and a Supreme Court attorney.
A second ministry official told OGJ that Norvik and Lund held a meeting on May 3, at which it was decided that Norvik and Vareberg would remain in place until their replacements are lined up.
White paper
The white paper described the Åsgard project and how it has been supervised, as well as how details and budgets were presented to the Storting during the approval process.The paper incorporates an independent report on how the Åsgard cost over-runs occurred, and the debate in the Storting is thought likely to be followed up by a general investigation into the whole Åsgard fiasco.
Åsgard comprises three oil and gas fields in the Norwegian Sea, which are being developed with an oil production ship and a gas production semisubmersible, linked to the world's most ambitious subsea infrastructure (OGJ, Aug. 17, 1998, p. 66).
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