More Cost Overruns, Delays at Norway's Martin Linge Field

Development costs have further ballooned at the Martin Linge oil and gas field off Norway, according to the Norwegian government’s 2020 budget published on October 7.

Costs at the Equinor-operated project are now estimated at 56.1bn ($6.2bn), the budget stated, up from a previous estimate of krone 47.1bn and a mere krone 29.6bn projected when development was approved back in 2012. The field had been operated by French Total, but it sold its stake to Equinor.

The start of production has also been pushed back to the third quarter of 2020, according to the budget, from the first quarter previously anticipated. A high-pressure, high-temperature field, Martin Linge was originally expected on stream in 2016, with earlier delays due in part to a fatal crane crash at the Korean shipyard tasked with supplying its fixed production platform.

Equinor holds a 70% stake in the project, while fellow government-owned group Petoro holds the remaining interest. The North Sea field holds 256mn barrels of oil equivalent, of which around 60-65% is gas and rest oil and NGLs. Its gas will be transported via the Frigg UK system to the Shell-Exxon gas and liquid (Segal) terminal at St Fergus, while liquids will be exported via tanker. UK-based Wood won a contract for brownfield modification services at the field in September.