By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 21 -- Gassco AS, operator of Norway's gas transport systems, said gas volumes from the Halten-Nordland area of the Norwegian Sea are insufficient to warrant laying a pipeline from that area to the Tampen area.
A more likely scheme for exporting Skarv field gas would be via the existing Åsgard Transport system (ÅTS) to the Kårstø processing complex north of Stavanger if ÅTS is upgraded and the processing facilities debottlenecked, Gassco said. Deliveries could begin in 2010 under this scenario.
Gassco said it would facilitate further work on this plan if the licensees—Statoil ASA, which holds 50%, Enterprise Oil Norge AS 40%, and Norsk Hydro Produksjon AS 10%—sanction field development.
"Should gas volumes corresponding to a medium-sized gas-fired power station be required at Tjeldbergodden in mid-Norway, we can also allocate output from Skarv through existing pipelines to that location as well as to Kårstø without noteworthy investment," said Thor Otto Lohne, Gassco's vice-president for commercial development.
He added that Gassco's studies provide the Skarv licensees with a good basis for deciding whether to develop the field.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate expects 30-35 exploration wells to be drilled on the country's continental shelf in 2005, many in the Norwegian Sea.