STAVANGER, Norway, June 20 (UPI) -- Norwegian energy company Statoil said it wanted to squeeze more resources out of aging subsea fields through compression.
Nearly half of all of the company's production comes from its 488 underwater wells. Some of the company's fields are only producing at around 60 percent of capacity, however.
Siri Espedal Kindem, the company's vice president of technology, said compressing natural gas on the seabed could help boost recovery.
"This is one of our most important measures for improving recovery from existing fields," she said in a statement.
Statoil said it was examining the technology for its Gullfaks field. The company said compression could boost recovery by as much as 6 percent.
Pressure in mature fields declines with production.
"Subsea compression can increase recovery on several small and medium-sized fields in the time ahead," said Kindem. "Statoil has already identified more candidates (for the technology)."
Statoil said it estimated the size of its latest discovery at Gullfaks at 19 million-75 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.
