STAVANGER, Norway, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Partners in the Johan Sverdrup oil field off the Norwegian coast said Friday they'd optimize a development plan but production may come later than planned.
Norway's Statoil and Sweden's Lundin Petroleum, energy companies with the largest stake in Johan Sverdrup, said they were committed to a field development concept and a final decision is expected early next year.
"We need to make the final clarifications and give the individual companies [involved in the process] the opportunity to make a proper consideration," Oivind Reinertsen, a vice president in charge of the field for Statoil, said in a statement.
Lundin, in a separate statement, said the first oil from the offshore field is expected by late 2019, roughly a year later than expected.
"Once the final concept selection decision has been made by the partnership in early 2014 there will be a further announcement outlining the field's development concept including production capacity ... estimated capital costs and likely timing of the different development phases," Lundin said.
Statoil said the resource estimate for the field, one of the largest discoveries ever made in the region, is between 1.8 billion and 2.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
