Statoil makes another gas discovery in Aasta Hansteen area

STAVANGER, Norway -- Statoil, together with its partners in PL602, has made a gas discovery in the Roald Rygg prospect in the Norwegian Sea. This is the second discovery made by Statoil in the Aasta Hansteen area in Spring 2015.

Well 6706/12-3 was drilled about 12 km west of Aasta Hansteen field in the northern part of the Norwegian Sea. Drilled by the Transocean Spitsbergen rig, the well proved a 38-m gas column in the Nise formation with very good reservoir quality. Statoil estimates the volumes in Roald Rygg to be in the range of 12–44 MMbbl of recoverable oil equivalent.

Irene Rummelhoff, senior V.P. of exploration-Norway in Statoil, said, “Statoil has completed a targeted two well exploration program around Aasta Hansteen, which aimed to test additional potential in the area and make the Aasta Hansteen project more robust. Both wells, Snefrid Nord and Roald Rygg, have resulted in interesting discoveries, which will now be further evaluated for future tie-in to the Aasta Hansteen infrastructure.”

Roald Rygg is located less than 7 km west of the Snefrid Nord discovery. The estimated total volumes in the two discoveries correspond to about 25% of the Aasta Hansteen recoverable volumes. Production start-up is expected in 2017.

Aasta Hansteen will be the largest SPAR platform in the world, and it is the biggest ongoing field development project in the Norwegian Sea. It is one of the main projects in Statoil’s portfolio. The plan for development and operations (PDO) was approved by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in 2013.

Earlier this year, Statoil increased its equity share in PL602 through transactions with Rocksource ASA and Atlantic Petroleum Norge AS.

Subject to government approval, the PL602 partnership will consist of Statoil Petroleum (operator, 42.5%), Petoro (20%), Centrica Resources Norge (20%), Wintershall Norge (10%) and Atlantic Petroleum Norge (7.5%).