Norwegian energy giant Statoil and its partners will invest over 5 billion Norwegian Krones ($643 million) in the development of the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea, to feed the company’s LNG plant at Melkøya in Hammerfest.
The development of Askeladd, which will supply 21 billion cubic meters of gas and two million cubic meters of condensate to Hammerfest LNG, is the part two of the multi-phased Snøhvit development, Statoil said in a statement.
Production is scheduled to come on stream towards the end of 2020.
“This is the next step in the development of Snøhvit. Askeladd will help maintain a plateau production rate at the Hammerfest LNG plant until 2023,” said Torger Rød , Statoil’s senior vice president for project development.
Speaking of the Snøhvit license, Per Henry Gonsholt , acting production director at Hammerfest LNG, said it contains enough gas to maintain beyond 2050.
Askeladd will be developed with three wells via two new subsea templates with space for additional wells in the future. In addition, an infrastructure will be installed to tie-in the Askeladd development to existing Snøhvit field infrastructure.
The multi-phased development of Snøhvit was approved by the authorities in 2002. The partnership has already begun working on the next steps in the development of Snøhvit.
Statoil said that Aker Solutions has been awarded the contract for the two subsea templates, whi9le additional contracts will be awarded in the following months.