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Equinor Wins Norway's Approval for Snorre Expansion Project

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Equinor ASA’s (EQNR - Free Report) Snorre Expansion Project has received approval for its plan for development and operation (PDO) from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

Equinor claims the project to be the largest carried out in respect to improved recovery on the Norwegian Continental shelf (NCS). The project would entail an investment of more than NOK 19 billion. The Snorre field’s recovery is likely to be enhanced by about 200 million barrels and field’s life would extend beyond 2040.

The company has awarded contracts related to the field including comprehensive subsea development to TechnipFMC, manufacture and installation of the pipeline bundle system to Subsea 7, upgrading of the Snorre A to Aibel, drilling and well operations to Transocean and marine installations to Deep Ocean.

Initially, the Snorre field was anticipated to produce till 2011-2014. However, the expansion project has extended the field life beyond 2040 and recovery rate has increased to 51% from 46%.

The Snorre Expansion project, which is anticipated to begin operations in 2021, will be operated and maintained by the existing Snorre organisation in Stavanger. Fjordbase in Floro will manage the supplies.

About Snorre Field

Located about 200 kilometers west of Floro in the Norwegian Sea, the Snorre field lies in blocks 34 / 4 and 34 / 7 and has two platforms —Snorre A and Snorre B. Equinor, the operator of the field, has an interest of 33.3%. Other partners include Petoro with 30%, ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM - Free Report) , Idemitsu Petroleum, RWE-Dea Norge, Total S.A. and Hess Corporation (HES - Free Report) , holding 30%, 11.58%, 9.6%, 8.28%, 6.17% and 1.03%, respectively.

The Snorre field also comprises of two satellite fields —Vigdis and the Vigdis extension—that are linked to the platforms. Snorre is estimated to hold recoverable reserves of 1.4 billion barrels of oil, six billion cubic meters of gas and six million tons of natural gas liquids.

In a separate announcement, Equinor announced that it has decided to acquire an interest of 10% in the BM-S-8 license from Barra Energia in the Santos Basin offshore Brazil. The purchase price would be $379 million and its stake would increase to 46.5% in the license.

Price Performance

In the past three months, Equinor’s shares have gained 11.6% outperforming with the industry’s rise of 3.4%.



 

Zacks Rank

Equinor currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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