NEWS
Statoil says Snohvit budget is on track
Oslo, Aug 1 (LNG journal)
- Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil said Monday that its Snohvit liquefied natural gas project in the Barents Sea remained on schedule and the company didn't foresee any cost over-runs on the $8 billion project.
Statoil Chief Executive Helge Lund, presenting the company's second-quarter 2005 income statement, said that Snohvit was keeping to its timetable. "The process plant for the Snohvit field was successfully berthed in its dock at Melkoya on 13 July," he said.
The pipeline from the field to the process plant and the carbon dioxide reinjection pipeline have also been successfully laid.
"This is a frontier project with high-risk conditions," Lund said. "There's clearly uncertainty about productivity during the difficult months, but there are no changes to our current schedule."
Project management in the LNG industry has come into focus in recent weeks after Shell revised its share of the budget for the Sahkalin II project in the Russian far east.
Shell says its Sakhalin II gas development could end up costing $20 billion, double the original budget set two years ago. The company has also revised the date of the project's first LNG deliveries from November 2007 to mid-2008.
Statoil's Hammerfest LNG plant, which is due to start producing in October 2006, will be the first export facility in Europe for LNG.
Referring to Statoil's US joint venture with Dominion at Cove Point in Maryland , the earnings statement said Dominion has filed an application for an expansion project to the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
"The approval process is anticipated to be finalized in the first half of 2006," Statoil said. "The agreement signed between Statoil and Dominion involves annual terminal capacity rights of approximately 7.7 billion cubic metres of gas for a 20-year period, with planned start-up in 2008."
