Norway's Feb Output Beats Forecast

Norway produced less gas last month than both January 2017 or February 2016, but more than had been forecast, according to preliminary data from offshore regulator Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).

It produced 365mn m³/day on average last month, compared with 370mn m³/d in January 2017, according to NPD data released March 21. The respective monthly totals were 10.22bn m³ and 11.47bn m³.

February 2017 had been forecast to be 9.805bn m³; production in February 2016 was 10.56bn m³.

Total liquids production in February 2017 averaged 2.01mn b/d, down 1% from the previous month.

Norwegian gas production, 2017 (Source: NPD)

Meanwhile the Statoil-led Johan Sverdrup partnership March 21 has awarded the Johan Sverdrup oilfield development’s phase 2 front-end engineering and design contracts to Aker Solutions, Kværner and Siemens. Statoil said phase 1 is under development and scheduled to produce first oil in late 2019. Partners will now proceed with maturing Phase 2 for an investment decision, with submission of the plan for development and operation (PDO) in 2H2018, to start up 2022.

Phase 2 capital expenditure is now estimated at between NKr40bn and 55bn (nominal ($4.7bn to $6.5bn), halving the estimate since the PDO was submitted for phase 1 of Johan Sverdrup. Statoil said that breakeven for both phases combined will be less than $25/b, with a targeted "world class recovery rate of 70%." 

Phase 1 of the development establishes a field centre consisting of four platforms on the field. Phase 2 builds on this infrastructure, adding another processing platform to the field centre. Once both phases are complete, Johan Sverdrup will have an overall processing capacity of 660,000 b/d.

Mark Smedley