Mobil Announces Start of Production from the Norwegian Sea
19 May 1999
Mobil Announces Start of Production from the Norwegian Sea
FAIRFAX, Va.--May 19, 1999--Mobil Corporation announced today the start of production from the world's largest subsea development, the Asgard Unit in the Norwegian Sea. Mobil Exploration Norway Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mobil Corporation, has a 7.35 percent equity share in the Asgard development.The oil is produced from the Asgard A production ship, one of the world's largest floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSO) with a design capacity of 200,000 barrels per day. The first well was brought on stream in the morning of May 19, and the production will be gradually increased to design capacity. The oil is loaded onto shuttle-tankers at the field for transportation to shore.
In the second phase of the development, the production of natural gas and condensate is scheduled to start in October 2000 from the Asgard B platform. Asgard B is the world's largest floating gas platform and is currently under construction in Norway. The natural gas processing capacity from Asgard B is 1.3 billion cubic feet per day, which will represent around 15 percent of all gas deliveries from Norway. The gas will be transported by pipeline to Karsto, just North of Stavanger, for further processing prior to transportation to Continental Europe. The condensate design rate for Asgard B is 100,000 barrels per day.
The combined liquids production of 300,000 barrels of oil and condensate per day early in the next century will represent approximately 10 percent of Norway's production.
The start of production from Asgard comes shortly after the start of production from another Mobil-interest field, Oseberg East in the North Sea earlier this month. The oil production from the Oseberg East steel-jacket is transported to the Oseberg Field Center for further processing and subsequent transport to shore via the Oseberg Transport System. The expected peak production rate is 65,000 barrels per day (Mobil interest 7.0 percent).
Other Mobil interests in the Norwegian Sea include the Njord field, which came on stream in 1997 and is now producing at a rate of 70,000 barrels of oil per day. The company also holds interests in several existing discoveries located in Production Licenses 199 (the Kristin and Lavrans fields) and 091 (the Trestakk and Tyrihans South fields). In addition, Mobil participated in a significant oil and gas discovery in March 1998 on Production License 212 (Blocks 6507/5 and 6507/6), in which Mobil has a 15 percent interest. This new discovery, called Skarv (previously referred to as Donnatello), was one of the largest in Norway in 1998.