The Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) of Ringhorne Øst was approved by the Cabinet today.

Ringhorne Øst, which is located in block 25/8 on the Utsira High, around 180 km west of Karmøy, was proven in August 2003. The Ringhorne Øst development is located in two licenses, and the licensees in PL027 and PL169 have entered a joint venture agreement to produce the Ringhorne Øst reservoir.

The development plan includes four new production wells which will be drilled through available well slots on the Ringhorne platform.

- Ringhorne Øst signifies a new oil and gas development which will extend the production plateau of an area on the Norwegian continental shelf which has a long history of petroleum acitivities. This means Ringhorne will make use of existing infrastructure in the area. Furthermore, this is a good example of a project on a fast track from discovery to an approved development plan, says Kathy Pepper, Managing Director of ExxonMobil in Norway.

The Ringhorne Øst reservoir contains oil and associated gas, and recoverable reserves are estimated at 47 million barrels of oil. The drilling of the field’s producers are scheduled to start in December 2005, and production on Ringhorne East is expected to last beyond 2020. 

The wellstream will be processed at the Ringhorne and Balder facilities utilizing available facility capacity. Only limited modifications are required to the Balder and Ringhorne facilities, primarily for the purpose of metering and allocation. The produced gas will be exported through Statpipe into the Gassled system via the high pressure gas export line from Balder to Jotun. The total development cost is estimated at approx. NOK 1 billion.

The Ringhorne Øst development is located in two licenses – PL169 and PL027 – with the following licensees:

PL169
Norsk Hydro  45%
Petoro  30%
ExxonMobil  13%
Statoil         12%

PL027
ExxonMobil 100%