The Oseberg Vestflanken 2 project comprises an unmanned wellhead facility, which is designed to recover oil and gas from new deposits while enhancing the recovery rate from other producing deposits.
The project is expected to recover more than 100 million barrels of oil equivalent and involves the Alpha, Gamma and Kappa oil and gas structures located around 8km north-west of the Oseberg field centre.
Planned to be developed with a simplified, unmanned wellhead facility with ten well slots, the Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is scheduled to commence production in the second quarter of 2018.
The wells will be remote-controlled from the Oseberg field centre.
Statoil Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) field development senior vice-president Ivar Aasheim said: "We emphasise that this new concept will continue the high security level we have on our installations on the NCS."
The project is also expected to serve as a vital element in further developing the Oseberg infrastructure for the future.
The project is the first of three planned phases for developing the remaining reserves in the Oseberg area.
Statoil projects cluster senior vice-president Torger Rød said: "The costs of subsea templates have tripled during the last ten years.
"Platform wells on a steel jacket lead to considerable cost reductions and secure a robust project economy."
Statoil said that the Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is expected to contribute to its goal of maintaining the current production level until 2030 and beyond.
Statoil operates the Oseberg Vestflanken 2 project with 49.3% stake while other partners include Petoro with 33.6% interest, Total 14.7% and ConocoPhillips 2.4%.
Image: Illustration of an unmanned wellhead facility. Photo: courtesy of Statoil/ Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
