Infield Systems Launch New Oil and Gas Map showing activity in the Norwegian, Baltic and Barents Seas to 2017 at Offshore Northern Seas
Energy Analysts, Infield Systems, are launching their exciting new mapping product, which captures all current and future expected activity for offshore oil and gas field developments in the Norwegian, Barents and Baltic Seas, at the Offshore Northern Seas Conference & Exhibition being held in Stavanger 28 to 31 August. This new map is the latest mapping product from Infield Systems, renowned for publishing the most sophisticated and detailed maps focused on the offshore energy industry.
This new activity map from Infield Systems presents current and future oil and gas fields and their associated infrastructure up to 2017. Using information from Infield Systems' Offshore Energy Database of all global oil and gas fields and developments, this new activity map is a "must have" for anyone in the industry who wants to keep abreast of changes in this dynamic region.
The map (1550mm x 1050mm), which includes detailed inset maps of current and future oil and gas fields in the Norwegian Sea and the Russian and Norwegian Barents Sea areas, is reproduced in full colour, with onshore satellite imagery and licence block and concession areas listing current operator status. The map highlights producing oil and gas fields with well locations along with operational, future and decommissioned platforms and pipelines.
This map will be officially launched with FREE distribution at the 2012 Offshore Northern Seas Conference and Exhibition in Stavanger, and will be available from Infield Systems' Stand J-1060.
The Norwegian, Baltic and Barents Seas Regional Activity
Infield Systems latest edition to its mapping portfolio helps to highlight the dramatic change in fortunes of the Offshore industry in a region which for the past decade, has been characterised by depleting reserves. 2011 was a pivotal year in the history of the Arctic and Barents Seas development, with the frontier discovery of the Skrugard and Havis fields, estimated to hold between 400 and 600 million barrels of oil equivalent, and the Delimitation Agreement between Norway and Russia which saw a 176,000 square kilometre area, about 12% of the Barents Sea, finally divided between the two nations. This new optimism has contributed towards the recent surge in operator interest culminating in Norway's 22nd licencing round, which brings to the fore a record 72 blocks located in the Barents Sea. Several of these new licences are located along the Russian border in the formerly disputed area.
Infield Systems latest map highlights how the deployment of new technologies has become increasingly critical in order to most efficiently exploit the region's prospects. Since its hydrocarbon production peak in 2001, the region's operators have been forced to move into ever deeper and environmentally harsher territories in search of new resources. Statoil is viewed as a pioneer of these new technologies with recent successes both with its monitored and remotely controlled from shore subsea wells on its Snohvit field as well as its utilisation of a nearly 50km subsea liquid tieback to a floating platform in the harsh conditions of the Norwegian Sea, which utilises increased recovery techniques and remotely operated wells. These ground breaking developments have set new precedents for offshore production and have highlighted how future prospects are likely to be exploited.
In contrast to the optimism surrounding Norway's prospects, on-going challenges remain in terms of realising Russia's development ambitions. Whilst Gazprom's Shtokman is still expected to dominate offshore development expenditure and account for a 70% share of total field reserves expected on-line during the 2012-2017 period, it has continued to hit industry headlines and to suffer delays to its development schedule. Going forwards, however, policy changes and government incentives may help to incentivise operators to expand activities to Russia's Arctic waters, whilst it is hoped that greater co-operation between Norway and Russia will be established which will be fundamentally important to the successful development of this frontier region.
Since 1991, Norway has overwhelmingly dominated the region's spend and its spend is likely to remain significant over the next five years. Infield Systems expects the largest field development offshore Norway to be the Johan Sverdrup field, estimated to hold just under 2,000 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. In capital expenditure terms, however, the most intensive development currently expected to take place outside of Russia remains Statoil's Aasta Hansteen (ex Luva), with the Spar platform expected to enter production towards the end of 2016. With a total hull length of 193 metres, the Spar will be the largest in the world.
Finally, this new map will also include the location of a small group of fields in the Baltic Sea, an area which also serves as a key transit route for Russian energy exports, underlined by the Nord Stream gas export pipeline from Russia to Germany.