Equinor weighs up sale of stake in major oil and gas field
Equinor is considering offloading its 28 per cent stake in Statfjord field, which straddles the Norwegian and British continental shelves.
The Norwegian energy giant has hired US investment bank Houlihan Lokey to advise on the sale, according to news agency Reuters, which could fetch up to $500m.
Equinor also plans to sell minority stakes in the connected fields Statfjord North, Statfjord East and Sygna, the presentation showed.
Statfjord has been producing oil and gas for over four decades, and by the end of 2021 still had 107m barrels of oil equivalent (boe) left – about half of which are gas reserves.
In 2020, Equinor decided to extend the field’s lifetime towards 2040, with a planned decommissioning of Statfjord A platform postponed until 2027.
Platforms Statfjord B and C are expected to operate beyond 2035.
Statfjord produced 38,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day
in 2021, with gas accounting for more than a third, according to data from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
Stafjord North, Stafjord East and Sygna produced a total of nearly 16,000 boe per day in the same year.
Oil from Statfjord is exported via shuttle tankers, while gas is piped to the St Fergus terminal in the UK.
Equinor is expected to remain a stakeholder in the fields after any sales.
Currently, it holds 78.6 per cent of Statfjord, 45 per cent of Statfjord North, 43.4 per cent of Sygna, and 43.3 per cent of Statfjord East.