Spirit invests in increased recovery from Statfjord East

Spirit Energy and the other licence partners have decided to invest about £260 million to improve recovery from the North Sea Statfjord East field.

The partnership has submitted a written notification of material changes to the Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) of the field to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. By investing approximately £260 million the goal is to improve recovery from Statfjord East by 23 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Håvard Nygård, Spirit Energy’s Statfjord Asset Manager, said: “We have extended the Statfjord field life several times and investing in Statfjord East is another step towards production from this area until 2035 and beyond.”

Statfjord East is tied back to the Statfjord C platform by pipelines. A total of four new wells will be drilled from existing subsea templates. The project also includes modifications on Statfjord C and a new pipeline for gas lift.

Higher recovery

This decision enables an improvement of the recovery factor on Statfjord East and gives an important contribution to extending the life of the Statfjord C platform and the Statfjord East field towards 2040. The original oil volume in place on Statfjord Øst was 415 million barrels. The current recovery factor is 56 percent.

Nygård said: “As a result of this project, the expected recovery factor is increased to 62 percent. The Statfjord area is important for Spirit Energy and this investment will contribute to our goal of maximising recovery from producing assets.”

In January 2020, Spirit Energy and its partners in the Statfjord area announced a plan to drill up to 100 new wells and extend production by more than 10 years. Extensive mapping of the subsurface has revealed that the remaining potential of the Statfjord area is considerable, with Spirit Energy and its partners agreeing on a new and ambitious business plan for the area.  

Statfjord A was scheduled for decommissioning in 2022, however, the field life will now be extended to 2027. The lives of Statfjord B and C will be extended towards 2040.

About Statfjord East

The Statfjord East development comprises subsea installations that include three templates. The field came on stream in 1994 and is located five kilometres north-east of the Statfjord C platform.

The licence partners in the Statfjord East Unit are Spirit Energy Norway AS (11.5625%), Equinor Energy AS (31.6875% and operator), Petoro AS (30%), Vår Energi AS (20.55%), Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS (4.8%) and Wintershall DEA Norge AS (1.4%).

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