Statoil Gets Permission To Start Gina Krog Field Production

Energy firmStatoil (OL:STL) ASA (NYSE:STO) has received approval from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate for commencing production from the Gina Krog field in the North Sea.

The estimated reserve of the offshore field – discovered in 1974 – comprises 106 million barrels of crude, 3.2 million tons of natural gas liquid and 417 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Investors should know that the company is expected to start production from the field by June.

Statoil is likely to utilize a mobile jackup rig to operate the field. The company is expected to export the produced raw crude through tanker, while the natural gas is anticipated to be sent for processing at Sliepner A platform.

It is to be noted that Statoil, with 58.7% ownership, is the operator of the field. The other firms having interest in the field are TOTAL SA (NYSE:TOT) , Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company, Aker BP (LON:BP) and Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo of Poland. According to media sources, an oil startup player in Norway decided to purchase 15% stake of TOTAL in the Gina Krog field for a consideration of $350 million. However, TOTAL has refused to make any comment regarding the transaction.

Norway-based Statoil is a major international integrated oil and gas company. It is one of the major carbon-efficient producers of oil and natural gas in the world. Moreover, the company’s one-year share price chart shows significant strength. Statoil’s shares outperformed the Zacks categorized Oil & Gas-International Integrated industry by appreciating 9.7% as against 4.6% gain for the broader industry.

However, Statoil’s earnings surprise history is disappointing. The company missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters with an average negative surprise of 94.87%.

As a result, the company currently sports a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), implying that the stock will perform in line with the broader U.S. equity market over the next one to three months.

Some better-ranked players in the energy sector include Canadian Natural Resources Limited (TO:CNQ) and McDermott International Inc. (NYSE:MDR) . Canadian Natural and McDermott sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

We expect year-over-year earnings growth for Canadian Natural to be 720% for 2017.

McDermott beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters with an average positive surprise of 387.50%.

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