STATOILHYDRO and its partners in north-west Europe’s largest offshore gas field, Troll, have chopped some of the further investment planned due to cost inflation and the slump in hydrocarbons prices.
This means the original budget of $1.4million (£1billion) is being cut back to less than $900million (£640million).
The company said it wanted to cancel the sub-project for the replacement of flowlines in the gas wells on the Troll A platform, which was one of three sub-projects in a plan delivered to the authorities in June, 2008, and is now pending final approval. But this is seen as a delay, not outright cancellation of that work.
Meanwhile, the gas injection system will be in place as planned by the turn of the year 2010-11 and will make it possible to increase recovery of the oil reserves associated with this vast gas resource. Expectation is that gas injection in Troll West will result in an increase in the oil reserves on Troll of 17million barrels.
Further, StatoilHydro said a new pipeline for rich gas from the Troll A platform to Kollsnes gas processing plant, including modifications to Troll A and the Kollsnes receiving facility, would proceed as planned. This is intended to help secure the Troll’s position as a reliable long-term source of supply for gas into Europe.