Statoil making headway with Johan Sverdrup

STAVANGER, Norway, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Norwegian energy company Statoil said it awarded a contract for equipment that will help ensure maximum resource recovery from the Johan Sverdrup field.

Statoil awarded a contract to equipment manufacturer FMC Technologies to build the subsea portions for the development of the Johan Sverdrup field.

"The subsea equipment enables reinjection of sea water and produced water into the Johan Sverdrup reservoir when we have started production," Kjetel Digre, Statoil's vice president for development, said in a statement. "In this way, we will achieve maximum recovery and value creation from the Johan Sverdrup resources."

First oil is expected late 2019. Statoil said the first phase of operations at the offshore field should yield up to 380,000 barrels of oil per day, roughly half of the expected peak production rate.

The Norwegian government in July opened a research center aimed at improving resource recovery rates from offshore fields. Statoil said it already has measures in place to reach a 50 percent recovery rate. The company aims for a recovery rate of 70 percent at Johan Sverdrup.

The government estimates each 1 percent increase in recovery rate translates to $48 billion for the Norwegian economy.

The government's statistics office this week said the low price of crude oil has led to clear downturns in the Norwegian economy and that pressure should persist through at least next year.