The UK government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced their approval of the field development plan put forward by Statoil and its co-venturers for the Mariner heavy oil field.
The project entails investments of more than USD 7B and is the largest new offshore development in the UK in more than a decade.
Statoil expects to start production from Mariner in 2017, and the field is expected to produce for 30 years. The average production is estimated at around 55,000 barrels of oil per day over the plateau period from 2017 to 2020.
“Statoil and its partners appreciate the cooperation from the UK government and the approval of the development plan for this landmark project. 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,” says Mr. Helge Lund, President and CEO of Statoil.
The Mariner project was positively impacted by the UK government’s expansion of the Ring Fence Expenditure Supplement and will provide significant tax income for the UK.
Statoil has extensive heavy oil experience from offshore fields in Norway and Brazil, which will enable it to develop the Mariner field.
The field will be developed with a production, drilling and quarters platform based on a steel jacket, with 50 active well slots, and a floating storage unit of 850,000 barrels capacity. In addition, a jack-up rig will be used for the first four to five years.
