The first piece of the Johan Sverdrup development has now been completed and installed in the North Sea.
Statoil said the installation of the 280-tonne pre-drilling template was carried out by Heerema Marine Contractor’s crane vessel ‘Thialf’.
Kjetel Digre, head of the Johan Sverdrup field development, said: “We have completed and installed the first piece of one of the largest industrial projects in Europe.
“We still have a long journey ahead in the Johan Sverdrup development, but we are very pleased that we have completed and installed the subsea template without serious incidents and according to plan.
“This is a good start according to the required quality and precision standards for successful implementation of the development.”
The 32-metre-long, 10-metre-high pre-drilling template is one of the smallest building blocks of the Johan Sverdrup development but plays a key role in the project.
It contains eight well slots that allow production wells to be pre-drilled before the drilling platform is installed in 2018.
Production is expected to start up at Johan Sverdrup in late 2019.
The pre-drilling will allow the production capacity to be utilised as efficiently as possible when Johan Sverdrup comes on stream.
The Johan Sverdrup partnership consists of Statoil, Lundin Norway, Petoro, Det norske oljeselskap and Maersk Oil.