Statoil Submits PDO To Government For Byrding Discovery

Statoil (OL:STL) ASA (NYSE:STO) , along with its partners, recently submitted the Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) of the Byrding oil and gas discovery to the Norwegian government regulators. The aforesaid discovery, which is located in the North Sea, was earlier known as Astero.

Capital expenditure guidance for the project has been lowered from initial estimations of about NOK 3.5 billion to about NOK 1 billion. Recoverable volumes from the project are projected at about 11 million barrels of oil equivalent.

A duo-lateral well drilled from the existing Fram H-Nord subsea template will be part of the Byrding development. Oil and gas from Byrding will flow to Troll C through this well. Thereafter, oil and gas will be channeled through existing pipelines to Mongstad and Kollsnes, respectively.

The above-mentioned duo-lateral well will be about seven kilometers long, of which the first kilometer will be shared by the two laterals. The field is expected to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2017. The project is expected to produce returns in the same year as the investments.

The project will be cost effective and is viewed as profitable even in the current oil price environment due to the usage of an available well slot in an existing subsea template.

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Byrding will enhance production and activity on the Troll C platform as it will add new profitable volumes from the Troll / Fram area. According to plans, Byrding will remain on stream for 8–10 years.

In recent times, Statoil has delivered strong exploration results and added significantly to its resource base by making several high impact discoveries. The latest finds enable the company to access new regions of Norway, Russia, Azerbaijan, Tanzania as well as Australia, thereby paving the way for long-term growth.

Statoil carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked players from the energy sector are Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) , Enbridge, Inc. (NYSE:ENB) and Enbridge Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE:EEP) . All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).