Oslo : Statoil, Norway's biggest oil and natural-gas producer, will spend about 200 million crowns (Dh124.8 million) on studies on its Luva gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea over the next two years.
The operator of the discovery will distribute about 10 to 15 contracts for studies by the end of 2011, including research on the field's seabed, Statoil's Luva Project Director Staale Gjersvold said on Friday.
The Stavanger-based company expects to decide on the development concept for Luva, estimated to hold 52 billion standard cubic metres of recoverable gas, by the end of next year, Gjersvold said. "In all probability it will be a platform solution," Gjersvold said.
"We're trying to decide on what type of platform through these studies we're putting out."
Recent discoveries in the Norwegian Sea, including Total's Victoria, Royal Dutch Shell's Gro and Onyx, as well as Haklang, Snefrid and Asterix may form the basis for a new gas hub in the area, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Statoil does not have an investment estimate for the development of the field yet, Gjersvold said.
Uncertainty
"Right now we're operating with a degree of uncertainty of 40 per cent.
"By the time we hand the development plan, we'll be at 20 per cent uncertainty.
"There are a lot of factors that do not depend on us," he said, referring to Gassco and Shell.
Norway has almost doubled gas output in the past decade to counter dwindling oil production.
