Norway’s Statoil is considering extending the life of its giant Statfjord A facility in the North Sea, with a decision expected by year end, SPE Offshore Europe’s keynote session Decommissioning and value extraction for end of life heard yesterday.
Statoil has been working to a 2016 preliminary cease of production (COP) date on Statfjord A, one of three concrete gravity-based platforms in the field. This is already an extension on the original COP date.
However, Atle Rattedal, VP Statfjord A, Statoil, said: “We now see an opportunity to extend the life of Statfjord A. We expect to make a decision by the end of this year.”
He said Statfjord was a pioneering platform in its day, with first production in 1979. Statfjord A was one of the biggest platforms built at the time.
“It is still pioneering today,” said Rattedal. “We still have decent production and reserves left. And we still have exploration prospects. We have gas production profiles extending to 2025 and we expect Statfjord B and C to last longer than that. We are drilling on all three platforms, as we speak. We have well intervention on all three platforms.”
Statoil plans nine new wells in the field this year and about 100 well interventions, he said.
The challenge was balancing planning decommissioning, including plugging and abandoning some 40 wells, with the value of continuing production, he said. The uncertainty over a COP date was also a challenge for the decommissioning and production teams, he added.
Statoil is considering a number of decommissioning options for Statfjord, varying from piecemeal removal of the topsides to a single lift and from leaving the concrete legs in place with lights or cutting them beneath the surface. It is expected that an OPSAR derogation order will be required for leaving the legs in place due to their structural integrity not withstanding being floated away.
image: Statfjord A platform in the Norwegian North Sea; credit: Harald Pettersen, Statoil.
Subscribe
