Norway's Statoil said Thursday it would develop the Vilje South oil field in the North Sea which will come on stream in late 2013.
"The Vilje partners have taken the investment decision to develop Vilje South, an extension to the main field included in its original plan for development and operation (PDO)," Statoil said.
Recoverable reserves in Vilje South are estimated at 7.6 million barrels of oil equivalent, mainly in the form of crude.
Net oil production from the Vilje South well in 2014 is expected to be about 5,000 barrels per day, with total investment at NOK1.1 billion ($188 million).
Statoil said Vilje South would be a fast track development, where the group puts on stream more marginal resources at lower costs and half development time by piggy-backing on infrastructure from mature producers.
Vilje is just to the north of Heimdal in the northern part of Norway's North Sea sector.
Statoil said the well planned for Vilje South would be the third producer in this development, intended to secure optimum drainage of its resources.
The project, the smallest to date in Statoil's fast-track portfolio, will comprise a standard subsea template with a single well, tied back to Marathon's existing Alvheim field via a 19-kilometer flowline and umbilicals.
No modifications will be required on the parent platform.
"That leaves only one more of these projects due to be decided upon before the end of the year, namely Visund North," said Halfdan Knudsen, head of fast track projects in Statoil's field development cluster for Norway.
Statoil said Thursday that both the Snorre B template and Mikkel South had been removed from the fast-track portfolio, the first because of adjustments to Snorre 2040 and the area as a whole, and the other to await capacity in the Asgard Transport gas pipeline.
New projects added to the portfolio are Fram H North and Svalin C, Statoil said.
Partners in the Vilje South project are Marathon Petroleum with 49.9%, Statoil the operator with 28.5% and France's Total which has 24.24%.
