More gas coming from offshore Norway in 2019

July 6 (UPI) -- More natural gas is expected to come out of the Norwegian Sea within the next two years or so, Norwegian energy company Statoil said Thursday.

Statoil said it's agreed on a development solution for the Snefrid Nord gas discovery, located near the Aasta Hansteen field in the Norwegian Sea.

"The discovery, scheduled to come on stream in late 2019, will be tied back to Aasta Hansteen," the company said in a statement.

After making a series of natural gas discoveries there, Norwegian energy company Statoil characterized the Aasta Hansteen reserve area as "one of the main projects" in its portfolio.

A process to lay the 300-mile long Polarled pipeline from the Aasta Hansteen field in the Norwegian Sea across the Arctic Circle to a gas processing plant in Norway began in 2015. Progress for Aasta Hansteen has slowed, however, and the company canceled its lease contract last year with rig company Seadrill for the West Hercules platform, which was set for relocation to the Aasta Hansteen field.

For the Snefrid Nord development, however, the company said its already made arrangements with services companies Aker Solutions and Subsea 7 to provide support for the infrastructure needed for development.

"We are pleased to see that Snefrid Nord generates spin-offs," Torolf Christensen, the project director for Statoil, said in a statement.

Norway is one of the leading oil and natural gas exporters to the European market. National figures show gas production and sales have been on a slow decline for much of the year, though a regulator said part of that was because of natural market fluctuations.