Statoil Starts Up Production at Stjerne

Norway's Statoil reported Monday that it has started up production on the Stjerne field, around eight miles southwest of the Oseberg South platform in the Norwegian North Sea.

Stjerne is the fifth of Statoil's fast-track projects to come onto production, and the news comes just a week after the firm began production at another fast-track development: the Skuld field in the Norwegian Sea. Statoil's fast-track portfolio of projects employ standardized solutions using existing infrastructure rather than building all required infrastructure from scratch.

Statoil said Monday that its ambition is to cut the time it takes to bring new fast-track projects on stream to an average of just 30 months.

Halfdan Knudsen, heads of the fast-track development portfolio for Statoil Development & Production Norway, commented in a statement:

"This is a good example of how to make smaller discoveries profitable. The project has run according to plan, despite the delayed drilling start due to a rig change.

"We switched to Songa Delta [mid-water semisub] and this meant that drilling and completion could be implemented faster than originally planned. In fast-track we are always looking for opportunities."

Stjerne was discovered in 2009. The field has a four-slot seabed template. Statoil said two wells will produce oil and gas, while the other two will inject water into the reservoir for pressure support. So far one of the wells has been drilled.

Recoverable reserves are now estimated to be 49.2 million barrels of oil equivalent, with oil accounting for 20.7 million barrels of that total. Statoil also said the project has been brought into development some $85 million below budget.

A former engineer, Jon is an award-winning editor who has covered the technology, engineering and energy sectors since the mid-1990s. Email Jon at jmainwaring@rigzone.com.

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