Bridging agreement in place

This accord had been necessitated by the development of the Statfjord North and East satellites. Although its wording was agreed by the end of 1990, it was not signed until 1 June 1991. The unitisation agreement of 1979 contained provisions that petroleum which might be proven in the original Norwegian and British licences would have the right to use the production facilities on the three Statfjord platforms for processing if spare capacity was available.

Substantial additional reservoirs – Statfjord East and North – had already been proven in PL 037 before the preliminary unitisation agreement of 1976. But supplementary rules were needed in order to develop these fields.

So the bridging agreement set a number of conditions which mean that the Statfjord facilities can be used by others – providing this does not interfere with the Statfjord Unit’s own output. The licensees of other fields are welcome to invest in increased processing capacity and to acquire the prior right to use this, but the Statfjord Unit’s licensees must unanimously agree on how much capacity can be offered to others.

To learn more, see: Statfjord agreements , by Håkon Lavik.