Statoil (STO) Stops Production Permanently at Huldra
Norway’s Statoil ASA (STO) declared that it has permanently stopped production at Huldra, a gas and condensate installation in the North Sea.
After being in production for about 13 years since it came online on Nov 21, 2001, Hudra (PL051/052) is the first gravity-based, Statoil-operated installation to be shut down.
The field has produced gas and condensate for six more years compared to the original plan. A total of 17,5 GSm³ of wet gas has been produced with a recovery rate of 80%. During its peak time, Huldra produced over 11 million standard cubic meters of gas and 4,000 standard cubic meters of condensate per day.
Initially, the project was a company for Statoil, which supervised it without employing any permanent staff. Hudra was operated from the Veslefrikk B platform located about 16 kilometers away.
Statoil had put the installation up for sale in 2011 in an attempt to reuse the platform, but was unsuccessful in finding a serious buyer. The company stated that it was still keenly looking at options of reuse.
The Epsilon drilling rig is expected to arrive at Huldra in 2016 for permanent well plugging. Till then, the Huldra platform will be regularly maintained and project activities will also be executed as well. Complete decommissioning of the field is expected between 2019 and 2021.
Statoil now has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors interested in the same sector could consider stocks like EQT Midstream Partners, LP (EQM), Valero Energy Partners LP (VLP) and Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P (SXL). All of these have a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and are expected to outperform the market over the next few months.
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