Statoil: Production Starts From Jack/St. Malo Project In Gulf Of Mexico

(RTTNews) - Energy company Statoil (STO) said that oil and natural gas production has started on Tuesday from the Jack/St. Malo project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The addition of production from Jack/St. Malo is an important building block of Statoil's plan to have more than a four-fold increase in offshore production from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico by 2020.

The Jack and St. Malo fields are located within 25 miles of each other in approximately 7,000 feet (2,100 m) of water in the Walker Ridge area, approximately 280 miles (450 km) south of New Orleans, Louisiana. The fields were co-developed with subsea completions flowing back to a single host, semi-submersible floating production unit located between the fields, with a production capacity of 170,000 barrels of oil and 42.5 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, and with the capability for future expansion.

Total production from the two fields is expected to eventually ramp up to 94,000 barrels of oil-equivalent per day. Statoil's expected production from the combined fields is approximately 23,000 barrels of oil/day at peak production.

The Jack and St. Malo fields were discovered in 2004 and 2003, respectively, and are estimated to contain combined total recoverable resources in excess of 500 million oil-equivalent barrels.

Statoil has a working interest of 25 percent in the Jack field, with co-owners Chevron (50%) and Maersk Oil (25%). Statoil also holds a 21.5 percent working interest in the St. Malo field, with co-owners Chevron (51%), Petrobras (25%), ExxonMobil (1.25%) and Eni (1.25%); and a 27.9 percent ownership interest in the host facility, with co-owners Chevron (40.6%), Petrobras (15%), ExxonMobil (10.75%), Maersk (5%), and Eni (0.75%).