Statoil wants to use a Tension Leg Platform (TLP) to help extend the life of its producing Snorre field offshore Norway to 2040.

The Norwegian operator has recommended using a minimum process and drilling TLP to extend the field’s life by 10 years, saying it has “worked hard” with Petoro and the other licence partners to find a good solution. A thorough evaluation of the US $6.7 billion Capex ‘Snorre 2040’ project has been carried out by the operator over the past year or so, with the choice essentially between a subsea development with continued use of the existing Snorre A and B floating production platforms, or a development with a new platform (Snorre C) tied in to the existing platforms. With the large expected number of wells to be drilled and maintained (up to 40), the dry trees platform option was always the favourite. Both the existing platforms will also remain in place.

The final development concept decision is scheduled for the first quarter of 2015, with project pre-sanction also expected later that same quarter, with formal project sanction in Q4 2016. Production is pencilled in to flow by Q4 2021. The TLP, if approved and built, would sit in a water depth of 310 m (1,017 ft).

“The platform solution is the best alternative for maximising production and creating the greatest possible value,” said Øystein Michelsen, Statoil’s executive vice president for the Norwegian shelf. “Snorre 2040 is an important improved oil recovery (IOR) project and supports our ambition of achieving an average oil recovery rate of 60% from our fields on the Norwegian shelf.”

Statoil is a self-proclaimed world leader within IOR, but its claim is justified, with an average oil recovery rate of 50% from the Norwegian shelf.

Snorre’s reserves are currently estimated at 1.55 Bbbl of oil, with the original estimate when the fields’ PDO was first submitted in 1989 being about 760 MMbbl. An important contribution to the increase in reserves came with the decision to install the second platform, Snorre B, on the northern part of the field, and to start reinjection of produced gas from the mid-1990s.

Today the estimated recovery rate is 47%, but Statoil says that it wants to implement additional IOR measures that will enable it to increase the recovery rate to 55%.

Michelsen added that more time is needed to mature the development solution and make the decision basis more robust. “Snorre 2040 is a huge project with significant investments, but it will also yield substantial value. Thorough preliminary work is important to arrive at the best possible solution. We are also seeing marked rising costs in our industry and we must ensure that value creation is optimal,” he said.

He also took the opportunity to have a slight dig at the Norwegian government’s decision to change the petroleum tax rules adopted in May this year, saying the change “also undermines the financial conditions of Snorre 2040, which means that we have to spend more time on maturing the project”.

The new drilling and processing platform – which would be the third TLP facility offshore Norway – would also facilitate the tie-in of additional discoveries in the area.

The partners in Snorre are: Statoil (33.27556%), Petoro (30%), ExxonMobil E&P Norway (17.44596%), Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (9.6%), RWE Dea Norge (8.57108%) and Core Energy (1.1074%).