Member Article

Statoil investment brings 700 jobs to North Sea

A North Sea investment worth £4.3bn from the Norwegian company Statoil has been announced.

Alongside news of a natural gas source discovery in Tanzania, Statoil said that 700 jobs will be created in the Aberdeen area, including 500 offshore positions.

Statoil’s Mariner field, for which it became operator in 2007, will be developed as a result of the investment, and the firm predicts it will yield approximately 55,000 barrels of oil a day between 2017 and 2020.

New technology will be required to extract fuel resources from the two shallow reservoirs in the Mariner Field, with the potential to retrieve more than 250m barrels of oil.

Lars Christian Bachers, executive vice president for Development and Production International in Statoil, said: “Statoil has extensive heavy oil experiences from offshore fields in Norway and Brazil.

“The Mariner field was discovered in 1981 and Statoil entered the license as operator in 2007 with the aim of finally unlocking the resources.

“We are satisfied that we now are able to make an investment decision for a profitable development of the Mariner field.

“The Mariner project is a good strategic fit for Statoil. We are the world’s largest offshore operator and have a portfolio of attractive projects in some of the most prolific basins in the world.”

“The North Sea is a core area for Statoil, and we look forward to taking a leading role in further developing also the UK part of this basin.”

The project’s contract for engineering, procurement and construction has been secured by Spanish firm Dragados Offshore, who will liaise with UK-based company, SNC Lavalin, on engineering works.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering will take on the topside contract award and will work with UK business CB&I og Rig Design Services as engineering subcontractors.

Anders Opedal, senior vice president for Technology, Projects and Drilling at Statoil, commented: “We have seen a lot of interest from the supplier industry for the Mariner project. Selecting the right suppliers who can deliver on cost and time, with the right quality has been critical for the development to be realised.”

Recruitment for the organisation’s new project will begin early in 2013 and production from the field will start in 2017, depending on approval from UK authorities.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .