Eni writes down value of Goliat field

Eni’s financial statements for 2015 show that the company has reduced the expected value of Goliat by NOK 6.6 billion. “The main reason for this is the low price of oil. We expect lower earnings from the field than we have previously assumed, and therefore the value has been written down,” communications director Andreas Wulff says to Sysla.

The Goliat field has created much problems for the Italian company. After huge cost overruns and long delays, production of oil started at the platform started on March 13 this year.

The field is located 88 kilometres north of Hammerfest in the western part of the Barents Sea. It is the first development in the Barent Sea and the world’s northernmost offshore oil field. Eni owns 65 percent of the production license, while Statoil owns 35 percent.

“So far, production has gone as expected, and we have sent the first oil to the market. We have had delays, but now we are looking ahead. The company has a long-term perspective on the Goliat field,” says Wulff.

He added that the resources in the area seem to be higher than previously assumed. “We will publish figures related to this at a later stage, but preliminary analyzes show that there is more oil in the field than previous estimated.”

The Goliat field in the Barents Sea was discovered 16 years ago. Estimated production will be some 100,000 barrels per day. The oil will be stored in the floater itself before being reloaded to tankers and sailed to the markets. When production is on its top, it is estimated that one tanker will leave with oil every week. The Goliat platform has capacity to store one million barrels of oil.