Statoil and its Aasta Hansteen partners have submitted a plan for development and operation of the Norwegian deepwater gas field to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

The operator and the Polarled Development Project partners have also submitted the plan for installation and operation. “Aasta Hansteen will be the first deepwater development in the Norwegian Sea,” said Øystein Michelsen, executive vice president, Development and Production Norway. “At the same time this opens for the tie-in of existing and new discoveries. The development may generate substantial ripple effects in the north,” he continued.

The field will be run from Harstad, Statoil’s new Operations North organisation. The supply base will be located in Sandnessjøen and the helicopter base in Brønnøysund.

The planned development includes a spar platform – the first to be installed offshore Norway. Another first for Norway will see the use of steel risers to transport the gas to the platform and on to the 480 km long Polarled pipeline system. The hull will be fitted with storage for condensate, which will be offloaded to shuttle tankers.

Aasta Hansteen lies in 1,300 m (4,265 ft) of water, with esti- mated investments for the development put at US $5.7 Bn (NOK 32 Bn).

The field was proven in 1997, and is located approximately 320 km offshore. It will be the northernmost field yet developed in the Norwegian Sea. Total recoverable reserves are estimated at 45.4 Bcm of gas and 0.9 MMcm of condensate. Production is scheduled to start in 2017.

The project partners are Statoil (75%), OMV Norge (15%) and ConocoPhillips (10%).