Statoil to Expand at Snohvit - Analyst Blog

Statoil ASA (STO), Norway-based major international integrated oil and gas company, is planning to expand the Snohvit liquefied natural gas project in northern Norway. Management said that feasibility studies for commerciality of a second liquefaction train for Snohvit have recently resumed. 

Snohvit is located at 70 degrees north, at the same latitude as the frozen seas north of Alaska. The Snohvit LNG plant has an annual design capacity of 4.3 million tons of LNG. The produced natural gas liquids and condensate are transported 143 kilometers through the seabed pipeline to Melkoya Island in Hammerfest. 

Although still in an early stage, management said that field development can commence in 2013 if everything goes per the company’s schedule. Following which, production could be started in 2017 or 2018. 

Though the company has operations in all major hydrocarbon-producing regions of the world, it has an upstream focus on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). Statoil is the operator of 42 productive oil and gas fields on the NCS. Production from the NCS is about 75% of the company’s total production volume. 

Statoil is well positioned to sustain steady production growth for the next few years. The growing share of natural gas in the company’s NCS volume mix and its extensive interests in infrastructure assets enable it to play a leading role in the European natural gas market.
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