Italian energy company ENI in Norway will emerge with a final concept in February 2008 for the western Barents Sea’s only oilfield development, Goliat, although a plan for the field’s development and operation won’t be submitted until late this year, Scandoil.com learned Monday.

Offshore process plant for a sub-sea layout and a pipeline to a shore-based oil terminal are the sinews of a plan vying with shipboard loading to be the final development idea. ENI narrowed down a list of nearly a dozen, mostly maritime solutions to arrive at two.

An oil terminal and ENI’s new Hammerfest office might appease local interests hoping for a sizeable development, although local power for processing is limited, as is the local market for oil. Engineers studying the movement of oil to shore at Snoehvit, Goliat and even Shtokman have openly mocked the amount of energy required to get oil the 85 kilometres to shore in the barren, electricity-strapped Norwegian north.

Goliat, with its from 200 million barrels to 800 MM bbls, holds open the hope that the Barents Sea will become a new oil province. Elsewhere in the Norwegian North, seven wells are expected to be drilled in 2008, according the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

ws@scandoil.com

Tags: Eni, Goliat