The Statfjord oil field is a large oil and gas field covering 580 km2 along the U.K.-Norwegian boundary of the North Sea at a water depth of 145 m, discovered in 1974 by Mobil and since 1987 operated by Equinor.[1]
It is a trans-median field crossing the Norwegian and UK North Sea Boundary with approximately 15% being in the UK Continental Shelf waters. At peak production it produces over 700,000 barrels (110,000 m3) of oil per day. Oil is loaded offshore and taken directly to refineries; gas is transported via the Statpipe pipeline to mainland Norway.
A Conoco 211/24-1 well drilled in 1972-1973 on the U.K. side of the structure turned out to be downdip to the Oil-water contact and it was not until the April 1974 Mobil well 33/12-1, on the Norwegian side, that oil was discovered in 160 m of Brent Formation.[5] A second well "established an oil-water contact at 2584 m subsea" and a third well discovered a 127 m oil column in the Statfjord Formation with an oil-water contact 2806 m subsea.[5]
Production
Statfjord A in the North SeaStatfjord A in 1982Statfjord annual oil productionOil from the Statfjord fieldSample of the first oil produced in the Statfjord field in 1979.
The Statfjord field has three condeep concrete production platforms, A, B[6] and C[7] Each platform is made up of approximately 250,000 tonnes of concrete with 40,000 tonnes of top-side processing and accommodation facilities.
Statfjord holds the record for the highest daily production ever recorded for a European oil field (outside Russia) : 850,204 barrels (135,171.6 m3) (crude oil plus natural gas liquids) were produced on January 16, 1987.[8]
Statfjord holds one more record - the biggest single contract in Norwegian history for the construction of Statfjord B platform [9]
Statoil has planned the "late life" of the field and expects to ultimately recover 68% of Oil in Place.[10] but more than 60% have been produced already, leaving modest oil reserves in the order of 300 million barrels (48×10^6 m3), so the focus will now be placed on extracting the associated natural gas that had been re-injected into the field all over its life. As a mainly natural gas producer, Statfjord is scheduled to remain active until 2032.
Statfjord oil spill
In December 2007, thousands of tonnes of oil were spilled into the North Sea during the loading of a tanker at the Statfjord oil field. The spill, estimated at 21,750 barrels (approx 3,000 metric tons), was the country's second largest ever, according to Norway's oil safety authority. The accident happened in rough weather while the tanker Navion Britannica was loading oil from a storage buoy, according to the operator Equinor. Production had not been affected.[11]
^Kirk, R.H., 1980, Statfjord Field-A North Sea Giant, in Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade:1968-1978, Halbouty, M.T. editor, AAPG Memoir 30, Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, ISBN0891813063, pp. 95 and 100.
^Kirk, R.H., 1980, Statfjord Field-A North Sea Giant, in Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade:1968-1978, Halbouty, M.T. editor, AAPG Memoir 30, Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, ISBN0891813063, pp. 96-98.
^Kirk, R.H., 1980, Statfjord Field-A North Sea Giant, in Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade:1968-1978, Halbouty, M.T. editor, AAPG Memoir 30, Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, ISBN0891813063, pp. 99-109.
^Kirk, R.H., 1980, Statfjord Field-A North Sea Giant, in Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade:1968-1978, Halbouty, M.T. editor, AAPG Memoir 30, Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, ISBN0891813063, p. 109.
^ abKirk, R.H., 1980, Statfjord Field-A North Sea Giant, in Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade:1968-1978, Halbouty, M.T. editor, AAPG Memoir 30, Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, ISBN0891813063, p. 100.
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