Paula Dittrick
Senior Staff Writer
HOUSTON, May 4 -- Marathon Oil Corp. has expanded its Norwegian holdings to more than 1 million acres from 49,000 acres in 2001, said Steven B. Hinchman, Marathon senior vice-president, worldwide production.
Speaking at a May 4 Offshore Technology Conference breakfast meeting, Hinchman applauded the Norwegian government's cooperation on the Alvheim area development and operation plan (OGJ Online, Oct. 13, 2004).
The area lies in 125 m of water on the Norwegian continental shelf, west of Haugesund. The cycle time from development concept to production is expected to be 5 years, Hinchman said.
Alvheim production is expected to start in early 2007. Reserves are estimated at 200-250 million gross boe. Fields to be developed are Boa, Kneler, Kameleon, and East Kameleon.
"Norway continues to provide access to resource-rich areas. I'm confident that the Alvheim concept is a repeatable concept," Hinchman said. "There has been good communication [with Norwegian officials] and no surprises."
Operator Marathon Petroleum Norge AS let an engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commission contract to Vetco Aibel of Norway for all topsides work on the floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel to handle Alvheim's output. The MST Odin multipurpose shuttle tanker is being converted to an FPSO.
The Alvheim area will include five subsea drill centers, associated flowlines, oil transportation by shuttle tanker, and transportation of natural gas to the UK via a new pipeline, Hinchman said. Currently, 14 horizontal wells are planned, of which three will be multilaterals.
The drill centers will include the Vilje oil discovery, formerly known as Klegg. Hamsun field, a 2004 discovery, also is likely to tie back to the FPSO, Hinchman said.
