LONDON�Norwegian oil and gas giant Statoil today said it was mulling over a plan to develop a marginal 6-7 million bbl oil structure 9 km to the east of its Danish North Sea Siri field. Although no final development decision has been taken, current thinking at Statoil is said to favor the use of a small unstaffed wellhead platform linked by oil, gas, and water injection flowlines that will be remotely operated from the Siri platform.
The oil company suggested that bringing the Siri East satellite onstream via a "low-cost and efficient solution" would "demonstrate that [Statoil] can also make profitable use of small discoveries."
Although the satellite is not expected to provide sufficient oil to extend the producing life of the Siri installation beyond the forecast 6-8 years, Statoil has plans to add "several strings to Siri's bow" by drilling on the Siri East Downdip and Sara structures.
The process of identifying potential contractors for the Siri East development is now underway, said Statoil.
Siri's production platform was installed in November 1998, and oil first flowed from the field, which is located in 60 m of water, six months later. Statoil estimates the field to hold some 51 million bbl of oil. Siri was the first Danish offshore discovery to be made outside the Central Graben area of the North Sea.
The partners at Siri are Statoil (40%), Enterprise Oil PLC (20%), Danish oil and gas company DONG E&P (20%), Denerco Oil AS (7.5%), and Phillips Petroleum Co. (%12.5).
