Statoil Reports Mariner Field Project on Track

Statoil has started the build-up of its Aberdeen operating organisation and reports at SPE Offshore Europe 2013 that the company and its partners are on track with the Mariner field development project.

"This is the largest new offshore field development in the UK in over a decade. It has been 30 years in the making, and now we are on track developing the field and preparing for 30 years of production," says Lars Christian Bacher, Statoil's executive vice president for Development and Production International.

The Mariner heavy oil field was discovered in 1981. Statoil entered the license as operator in 2007 with the aim of finally unlocking the resources. The company and its partners took the final investment decision in December 2012 and the UK government's Department of Energy and Climate Change announced their approval of the field development plan in February 2013.

Statoil expects to start production from Mariner in 2017. The average production is estimated at around 55,000 barrels of oil per day over the plateau period from 2017 to 2020. Expected recoverable oil volumes are estimated to more than 250 million barrels.

Statoil has started the build-up of its local organisation in Aberdeen and say they plan to have a new operations centre in place by 2016.