Statoil presents plan for Trestakk discovery (Norway)

Norwegian oil major Statoil has submitted a Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) of the Trestakk discovery on the Halten Bank to the Norwegian minister for petroleum and energy Tord Lien in Bodø, Norway.

The discovery, made in 1986, contains about 76 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent, mainly oil. The project will be tied back to the Åsgard A oil production vessel, with planned production startup anticipated in 2019.

Trestakk is located in production license PL091, block 6406/3 in the Norwegian Sea some 27 km southeast of Åsgard A platform.

Statoil said on Tuesday that the capital expenditures for the project development are estimated at approximately 5.5 billion NOK ($667.5 million).

Torger Rød, head of project development in Statoil, said: “Trestakk is a good example of what is possible to achieve through spending time on working toward the best concept selection.

“By rethinking our concept along with license partners and suppliers, we have arrived at a solution that costs almost 50 percent less than the original concept. At the same time, we have been able to increase the recoverable resources significantly.”

The company’s first investment estimates were around 10 billion NOK, which was reduced to 7 billion NOK when the concept selection was made in January 2016.

Additional improvements and concept adaptations during 2016 further reduced the estimates to about 5.5 billion NOK.

According to Statoil, the concept selection consists of a template structure and an attached satellite well, which will be tied back to Åsgard A. Three production wells and two gas injection wells will be drilled for a total of five wells.

Siri Espedal Kindem, senior vice president for operations North in Statoil, said: “Volumes from Trestakk are an important contributor to ensure that operations on the Åsgard A production ship are extended toward 2030 and that more of the original volumes from the Åsgard field can be extracted.”

Statoil is the operator of the Trestakk discovery with a 59.1 percent interest while the two partners, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway and Eni, have a 33 and 7.9 percent interest respectively.