Statoil has started the build-up of its Aberdeen operating organisation and reported at SPE Offshore Europe 2013 that the company and its partners are on track with the Mariner field development project.

The company and its partners took the final investment decision in December 2012 and the UK government's Department of Energy and Climate Change announced their approval of the field development plan in February 2013.

"This is the largest new offshore field development in the UK in over a decade. It has been 30 years in the making, and now we are on track developing the field and preparing for 30 years of production," says Lars Christian Bacher, Statoil's executive vice president for Development and Production International.

Statoil expects to start production from Mariner in 2017. The average production is estimated at around 55,000 barrels of oil per day over the plateau period from 2017 to 2020.

Tags: Offshore Europe 2013, Statoil