Statoil to lead North Sea spending, data show

Feb. 14 (UPI) -- More than $58 billion in North Sea spending is expected over the next two years, and most of that is from the Johan Sverdrup field offshore Norway, data show.

A review of capital expenditures in the North Sea from GlobalData, an analytics company, found an average of $19.5 billion annually will be spent on more than 560 oil and gas fields in the North Sea to 2020.

According to its review, emailed to UPI, Norwegian energy company Statoil will lead the pack in the North Sea with close to $10 billion in spending expected by 2020. The company will spend nearly all of that, about $8 billion, on developing the Johan Sverdrup oil field.

Contracts worth more than $5.7 billion have been awarded by Statoil for Johan Sverdrup project so far and most of those have gone to companies in Norway.

Statoil, which holds a majority share in the field, said in early February the resource range has been updated slightly, from 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent to 3.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Phase 1 of the field's development is currently underway and about 70 percent completed. All told, Johan Sverdrup could represent a quarter of total Norwegian production and first deliveries from the field are expected to begin in late 2019.

Elsewhere, GlobalData's review found Statoil continues its leadership in the Mariner oil field development. The Norwegian energy company estimates the Mariner field in the British waters of the North Sea holds an estimated 250 billion barrels of oil and peak production should be around 55,000 barrels of oil per day, with first oil expected in production later this year.

Statoil had an income of $5.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017, compared to a loss of $1.9 million in the same period of 2016.