Statoil today said it had unwrapped one of its Christmas presents four months early.
The Statoil-operated Gullfaks Rimfaksdalen field in the Norwegian North Sea was slated to start production on Christmas Eve, but is already on stream.
The company, which owns 51% of the field, also managed to cut costs to NOK 3.7billion from NOK 4.8billion.
Statoil said Gullfaks Rimfaksdalen was an example of one of its fast-track projects that are completed quickly and cheaply through the use of existing infrastructure.
Gas is taken from the field to the Gullfaks A platform using a pipeline that was already in place.
It is then transported to a processing plant at Karsto north of Stavanger for processing ahead of export to Europe.
The field contains recoverable reserves of about 80 million barrels of oil equivalent, mostly gas.
The other licensees are Petoro, with a 30% stake, and OMV, with 19%.
Torger Rød, senior vice president for project development in Statoil, said: “I am pleased to see that the project starts up four months ahead of plan, demonstrating good and efficient project management.
“Over time we have focused on reducing costs and raising the profitability of our projects to ensure long-term activity and value creation on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).
“Based on a smart concept using standard solutions and existing infrastructure, Gullfaks Rimfaksdalen strongly proves that we are on the right track to succeed on this work.”
Arne Sigve Nylund, Statoil’s executive vice president for development and production in Norway, said: “The volumes from Gullfaks Rimfaksdalen help us reach our ambition of maintaining production and a high activity level on the NCS beyond 2030.
“We have a well-developed infrastructure and we will keep realising opportunities in the North Sea.
“This development leads to more production, improved value creation and higher activity level on Gullfaks, and also throughout the value chain related to the field.”
