From ONS-2014, Stavanger: Statoil, Statoil, Statoil...everything in Norway seems to be about Statoil...but not quite. It is clear to everyone that the Norwegian state company is the 500lb gorilla in the room. Other companies might try to look the other way, but it is hard to ignore it.

The CEO of one of the growing Norwegian independents - who in fact formerly worked for Statoil - complained here about its dominant position and called for the authorities to offer more operatorships to other companies.

This well thought-of chap seems to have forgotten that it was the Norwegian government which has fostered the current situation by allowing Statoil and Norsk Hydro to carve up Saga Petroleum 15 years ago and then allow Statoil to gobble up Hydro eight years later.

Nonetheless, there are at least a half dozen new field developments being operated by others - Lundin, Det norske oljeselskap, Wintershall, Premier and BG - with more to come in the next decade.

The first three took the opportunity of this show to puff out their relatively small chests and say ‘hey, look at us’.

Keep looking
Lundin is the biggest of the trio in terms of what they have achieved. The multi-billion barrel Johan Sverdrup may be Statoil’s baby now - Lundin has ceded any interest in operating - but it was the Swedish company’s Norwegian geoscientists - formerly with Saga and Hydro - who proposed looking at a different geological horizon in a much drilled block - it is in licence 01 in the sector – and look what they found.

Those who missed include three ‘small’ companies - Total, ExxonMobil and Statoil.

This Swedish company, led by a Brit (Ashley Heppenstall) with a Norwegian backbone (Torstein Sanness, Hans Christen Rønnevik), has two projects on the way.

Its subsea satellite Brynhild (SEN, 31/6) is late, but the big project, Edvard Grieg (30/8), with its jacket on location, was just one day past due. Sometime in the future, it will move on Gohta (31/9) in the Barents Sea.

Sanness even took a veiled poke at Statoil - one must be careful when poking a gorilla - by saying that Lundin wanted to operate like Hydro. Ouch!

Big company power
Also with a big platform project - Ivar Aasen (29/20) - on the go is Detnor. It was their headman, Karl Johnny Hersvik, who bemoaned the power of his former employer Statoil, but he also spoke like a man from a big company looking at how to find a new way of doing business in this high cost era. Hersvik called for a ‘radical change’ in the structure of the industry in Norway in order to have ‘the ability and the agility’ to respond to global events.

He also said that there needed to be more competition on the domestic scene and a new business model at a time of rising costs and reducing value of fields.

The former Statoil technology man could not fail to mention his company’s acquisition of Marathon Norge (31/6) for $1bn plus which he called ‘a good fit’. He also found time to mention Detnor’s stake in Sverdrup which gives it a nest egg for the future.

Production goal
Last, but not least, Wintershall put out its stall and reiterated its goal of producing 50,000boe/d on the NCS.

This will come from new production at operated fields like Maria (31/7) and Skarfell (30/21), but also from stakes in Grieg and Knarr (30/22) as well as from its operatorship at Brage which acquired in a package of assets from Statoil.

It will have its field development plan for Maria ready next month with detailed engineering set to start in early 2015.

Raw challenge
One of the most interesting elements of this subsea satellite project - which will see services from three different Statoil facilities - is the water injection scheme with a 43km pipeline from Heidrun.

With such a long and expensive pipeline, one would have thought it would have been a prime candidate for a subsea raw water injection system.

And it is and Wintershall looked at the technology. The problem is that this reservoir requires low sulphur water for injection which could not be provided by a subsea rwi system. Alas and alack.