STATOIL PLACES NORTH SEA VESLEFRIKK FIELD ORDERS
Den Norske Stats Oljeselskap A/S (Statoil)
<STAT.OL>, operator on Norway's North Sea Veslefrikk oil field,
has placed field development contracts totalling 1.5 billion
crowns with two domestic yards, the company said in a
statement.
    Moss Rosenberg Verft, a subsidiary of Kvaerner Industrier
A/S <KVIO.OL> won a 1.2 billion crown contract to convert
Statoil's semisubmersible rig West Vision to a floating
production platform and to build the deck for a separate, fixed
well-head platform to be placed on the field, it said.
    Statoil said Aker Verdal, a unit of Aker Norcem A/S
<AMVO.OL>, won a 300-mln crown contract to design and build the
well-head platform's 10,000-tonne steel substructure, to stand
in 150 metres of water next to the converted rig.
    Statoil said using a floating production unit rather than a
fixed platform would cut construction time, enabling field
partners to bring Veslefrikk on stream in late 1989 -- several
months earlier than previously planned.
    Veslefrikk, with estimated recoverable reserves of 258 mln
barrels oil and 140 billion cubic feet gas, is located 145 km
west of Bergen.
    Statoil estimates the field's total development cost,
including drilling, at 6.6 billion crowns. Planned daily output
is 65,000 barrels oil and 35 mln cubic feet gas.
    Veslefrikk's oil will be landed via the nearby Oseberg
field pipeline at the Sture crude terminal near Bergen. Its gas
will be fed into the Statpipe line, which gathers gas from
Norway's Statfjord, Gullfaks and Oseberg fields.
    Partners on the field are Statoil, the operator, with a 55
pct share, <Unocal Norge A/S> (18 pct), <Deminex (Norge) A/S>
(13.5 pct), Norsk Hydro A/S <NHY.OL> (nine pct) and <Svenska
Petroleum AB> (4.5 pct).
 REUTER
