Fram Øst plan approved

 

(April 22, 2005) The Plan for Development and Production (PDO) of the Fram Øst field in the North Sea was approved Friday by the Norwegian government.

The Troll C platform i Nordsjøen in the North Sea. (Foto: Helge Hansen)
 

Fram Øst is located some 20 kilometers north of the Troll C platform and will be developed as a subsea satellite field.

The development will begin in early June when two well templates are installed on the seabed. Production start is scheduled to begin 31 October 2006.

In a press release, Norway's Petroleum & Energy minister, Thorhild Widvey,  expressed delight that the oil companies are working actively to develop new and relatively small oil finds.

"Despite the fact most new finds being developed are smaller than before, the total of new development projects is increasing. I look very positively on decisions to recover smaller deposits that contribute to the more complete development of mature areas," she said.

The development plan puts Fram Øst's recoverable reserves at 60 million barrels of oil and 2.9 billion cubic meters of gas.

"We support rapid development of Fram Øst and are satisfied to now have the plan approved," said  Johan Kr. Mikkelsen, who heads up the Troll business unit in Oil & Energy.

Investments in Fram Øst are estimated at NOK 2.4 billion for field development, while the drilling program comes to NOK 1.4 billion. When  interest on capital, insurance and project reserve costs are included, investments are estimated to run approximately NOK 4.6 billion.

Partners on the Fram field:

Hydro (operator) 25%
ExxonMobil 25%
Statoil 20%
Gaz de France 15%
Idemitsu 15%
 
Rapid development of Fram East (2005-02-23)
Contracts worth NOK 1.2 billion awarded Technip (2005-04-14)
 

 

Cautionary Note

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission permits oil and gas companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only proved reserves that a company has demonstrated by actual production or conclusive formation tests to be economically and legally producible under existing economic and operating conditions.

We use certain terms in this material, such as expected recoverable resources, that the SEC's guidelines strictly prohibit us from including in filings with the SEC. Investors are urged to consider the disclosure in our Form 20-F, SEC File No. 1-9159, available from us at our Corporate Headquarter: Norsk Hydro, N-240 Oslo, Norway. You may also obtain this information from the SEC by calling 1-800-SEC-0330.