Permission granted for major oil development

Adam Civico February 17, 2013 0

The UK government has granted permission for the development of a £4.5 billion heavy field 150km east of Shetland.

Statoil expects to start production from the Mariner field, which is expected to be productive for 30 years, in 2017. The average production is estimated at around 55,000 barrels of oil per day over the plateau period from 2017 to 2020.

The Mariner field is located on the East Shetland Platform in the North Sea approximately 150 km east of Shetland. A spokesman said it would be the biggest offshore development in the UK in more than a decade.

An srtist's impression of oil extraction in the Mariner field. — Click for full image

Staoil president and chief executive officer, Helge Lund, said: “Statoil and its partners appreciate the cooperation from the UK government and the approval of the development plan for this landmark project. The North Sea is a core area for Statoil and we look forward to taking a leading role in further developing also the UK part of this basin.”

The project will create more than 700 long-term, full-time positions.

The field will be developed with a production, drilling and quarters (PDQ) platform based on a steel jacket, with 50 active well slots, and a floating storage unit (FSU) of 850,000 barrels capacity.

In addition a jack-up rig will be used for the first four to five years.

Statoil also has a large stake in the Bressay field and it expects to make a final investment decision for Bressay this year.

Statoil is also a partner in the producing fields Schiehallion, Jupiter and Alba as well as in several exploration licences offshore UK, including the oil and gas discovery Rosebank.

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