By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Apr. 8 -- Statoil ASA has secured a 10-year sales contract worth 300 million kroner/year, at 2003 prices, to supply ethane to Borealis AS and Norsk Hydro AS. Borealis is owned by Statoil 50%, Austria's OMV AG 25%, and Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co. 25%.
The deal covers deliveries from the Kårstø processing complex north of Stavanger to Borealis and Norsk Hydro's jointly owned Noretyl ethylene plant at Rafnes south of Oslo.
To accommodate the sales, the Kårstø complex is undergoing a 500 million kroner expansion to process gas produced by Statoil's Kristin field development in the Norwegian Sea beginning Oct. 1, 2005.
It will increase ethane production capacity by more than 50%, to 950,000 tonnes/year from 620,000 tonnes, and is being financed by owner Etanor DA—a partnership of Statoil, Petoro AS, Norsk Hydro, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, ExxonMobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips.
Kårstø production currently is shipped in two vessels to petrochemical plants at Rafnes and Stenungsund in western Sweden, but a third vessel will be needed to ship the additional volumes.