Statoil Postpones Investment Decision for Johan Castber to 2017

Statoil postponed its plans for Johan Castberg and Snorre, with an investment decision for the first field expected in 2017, and a preliminary decision to implement (DG2) for Snorre scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2016.

“We have made significant progress in reducing costs for Johan Castberg. However, current challenges in relation to costs and oil prices require us to spend more time to ensure that we extract the full benefit of the implemented measures,” Ivar Aasheim, Statoil’s senior vice president for field development on the NCS, commented in a note released on Friday. 

The company also reported that a group of operators in the area including Statoil, Lundin Norway, Eni and OMV are working to find the best solutions for an oil infrastructure in the Barents Sea.

Like the Johan Castberg partnership, also the Snorre partnership is trying to reduce costs. 

‘Snorre is one of the fields with the largest remaining oil resources on the Norwegian continental shelf. The subsurface is complex, and major investments will be required to produce the resources.

High investments in combination with challenging profitability characterise the Snorre field’s further development leading up to 2040,’ reads the press release.

Last year, the company said it might have delayed an investment decision on its Snorre project, in the aftermath of the tax hike in 2013.