Norwegian oil giant Statoil has informed that the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has sanctioned the Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) of Oseberg Vestflanken 2, offshore Norway.

Partners in the Oseberg Vestflanken 2 production licence are Statoil Petroleum (49.3%), Petoro (33.6%), Total E&P Norge (14.7%) and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia (2.4%).

The PDO of the North Sea Oseberg Vestflanken 2 was submitted to the authorities on December 18, 2015.

Reserves projected at 110 million barrels of oil equivalent the investments are estimated at NOK 8.2 billion (2015).

The Oseberg Vestflanken 2 development consists of an unmanned wellhead platform with ten well slots. In addition, two existing subsea wells will be reused. All wells will be remote-controlled from Oseberg field centre.

“Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is a pioneer project of great strategic importance,” says Torger Rød, Statoil’s senior vice president for project management.

According to Statoil, the project is a pilot that other operators, public authorities and the rest of Statoil’s project portfolio are already learning from. The concept is new in Norway, but has been thoroughly tested on the Danish and Dutch continental shelves, the company added.

“This new concept has been required to meet the high safety standards established for installations on the Norwegian continental shelf,” Rød says.

Aiming to cut investment costs throughout the engineering phase Statoil has reduced the break-even price of the project by about 30 percent thanks to reduced CAPEX and maturing of the resource base, thus increasing volumes. This makes the project resilient, even in a low oil price environment, Statoil said.

The wells at Oseberg Vestflanken 2 will be drilled by the new category J rig Askepott, which is currently under construction. It is owned by the Oseberg licence.

“It is gratifying that the strategies established for the procurement of Oseberg’s licence rig is now being realised through a profitable project, optimally utilising the existing infrastructure,” says Gunnar Nakken, Statoil’s senior vice president, Operations West.

The project will help extend the life of the Oseberg field and contribute to Statoil’s ambition of sustaining production on the NCS at the current level to 2030, and beyond.

Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is the first of three planned phases for developing the remaining reserves in the Oseberg area.

“Joint optimism among the Oseberg partners about the future of the Oseberg area is at the bottom of this,” Nakken concludes.