Norway's Statoil presents development plan for Oseberg Vestflanken 2

Norwegian oil and gas giant Statoil and its partners on Friday submitted the plan for development and operation of the North Sea Oseberg Vestflanken 2 to the authorities, the company said in a statement.

The development will provide in excess of 100 million barrels of oil equivalent, covering the Alpha, Gamma and Kappa oil and gas structures that are located around 8 km northwest of the Oseberg field centre.

"Oseberg Vestflanken 2 meets the current cost challenges and higher efficiency requirements with an innovative concept based on simplification. This is a pioneering project on the Norwegian continental shelf that the industry can learn from," Ivar Aasheim, a senior vice president for field development in Statoil, was quoted as saying.

The Oseberg Vestflanken development will consist of an unmanned wellhead platform with 10 well slots. The wells will be remote-controlled from the Oseberg field centre. Two existing subsea wells will also be reused.

Wellhead platforms with no facilities, helicopter deck or lifeboats represent a new solution in Norway, but it has been thoroughly tested in other areas, such as the Danish and Dutch continental shelves, the company said.

"We emphasise that this new concept will continue the high security level we have on our installations on the Norwegian continental shelf," Aasheim said.

The well stream will be routed to Oseberg field centre via a new pipeline and the production is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2018.

Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is the first of three planned phases for developing the remaining reserves in the Oseberg area and the the licensees are Statoil, Norway's government-owned company Petoro, France's Total and American multinational energy corporation ConocoPhillips. Endit