Statoil Says Production from Snorre A Up Again

Statoil

Statoil's Snorre A platform and Vigdis satellite in the North Sea are up again after the uncontrolled well incident on November 28, 2004. This follows extensive inspection and start-up work.

While Vigdis is producing as normal, Snorre A's output is rather lower than before.

"The reduction in Snorre A production reflects the fact that we're not injecting gas," explains Øivind Reinertsen, senior vice president for the Tampen cluster.

Suspending gas injection is not related to the incident. But new verification studies show that gas injection pressure under certain conditions could be higher than earlier thought.

This means that the pressure could exceed the design value for the risers. Until these studies have been completed, Statoil will abstain from injecting gas.

"Increasing production is out of the question until we've found a satisfactory explanation for and solution to this," says Mr. Reinertsen.

"We normally inject most of the associated gas from Snorre back into the reservoir, but while this opportunity is not present we must curb output to avoid gas flaring. New information will be issued in April."

Snorre A will be producing just under 100,000 barrels per day for the moment, while Vigdis is up to its full output of roughly 75,000 daily barrels.

The combined production from the platform and the satellite was previously just over 200,000 barrels per day.

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