Statoil Selected to Operate Giant Johan Sverdrup Offshore Oil Field

Johan Sverdrup field, Rendering: Statoil

Statoil has been selected to operate all phases of the giant Johan Sverdrup oil field offshore Norway, Statoil announced Friday.

Located approximately 96 miles west of Stavanger in the North Sea, the Johan Sverdrup field has oil and gas resources estimated at 1.8 and 2.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent, making it among the largest oil discoveries ever made in the history of the Norwegian continental shelf and among the top five oil fields ever discovered. The field consists of 95% oil and 5% rich gas Statoil says.

Statoil and its partners have set a goal to achieve a recovery factor of at least 70% from the field.

Partners in the field, which lies across several licenses include Lundin Norway (operator, 40%), Statoil (40%), Maersk Oil (20%) in the Production license 501/501B; Statoil (operator, 40%), Petoro (30%), Det norske oljeselskap (20%), Lundin Norway (10%) in the Production license 265; and Statoil (operator, 44,44%), Petoro (33,33%), Det norske oljeselskap (22,22%) in the production license 502.

Statoil is already operator in the planning phase and was widely expected to operate the field.

The agreement among partners will be included in the Unit Operating Agreement (UOA), which is planned to be submitted to the Norwegian authorities in February 2015 together with the Plan for Development and Operation (PDO).

Production start is scheduled for the end of 2019.