Together with its partners, Statoil expects to recover about 10 million barrels of oil equivalent through the construction of a seabed template on the Fram H North structure in the North Sea.

The seabed template will be connected to the A2 template on Fram West, which transports production to the Troll C platform. Fram H North is the 10th fast-track project in Statoil's portfolio.

"This project, which is one of the smallest fast-track developments on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, was made possible by means of standard solutions and fast-track principles to reduce time and costs," said Halfdan Knudsen, project manager for field development in Statoil.

"The development of this field may be a door opener for new developments in the area as the license partners have approved the installation of a four-slot standard template to be used for additional targets or for tying back prospects in the event of discoveries," he added.

The installation of all the seabed equipment and laying of pipelines and control cables is planned for summer 2013. Drilling is due to start in the 4Q 2013 and will involve a well with two sidetracks for optimal draining of proven reservoir.

The project is important for Fram operations to maintain a high temperature in the flowline to the Troll C platform. In this way, Statoil avoids using scale, wax inhibitors in the pipelines between Fram and Troll C.
Fram H North is planned to come onstream in 3Q 2014.

The field extends over two licenses. Licensees on Production License (PL) 090 are Statoil (45%), ExxonMobil (25%), GDF Suez (15%), and Idemitsu (15%). Statoil has a 60% interest in PL248 with Petoro owning the remaining 40%.