Norway: No oil development at Snoehvit

Statoil will cease all work relating to the development of the oil zone at the Snoehvit oil and gas field in the Barents Sea. This has been decided by the Snoehvit partnership.

Evaluations undertaken show that such a development would not be economically viable, Statoil states.

An appraisal well was drilled in the Snoehvit structure earlier in the summer. Its purposes included to confirm the presence of oil and the thickness of the oil zone in its western part.
According to Statoil, the well confirmed the presence of oil with well data being analysed and evaluated together with other geological information.

“These analyses show the presence of oil to be significantly less than we expected to find in this structure,” says Geir Pettersen, senior vice president for the Tromsoe Patch business cluster.

“When this is now evaluated alongside possible development solutions and current costs, it becomes clear that it isn’t economically viable to develop and produce oil from the area,” Pettersen says.

“This decision is final, since the start-up of gas production from Snoehvit shortly will prevent the oil zone being developed at a later stage.”

The Norway Post