Green light to use Goliat

Norway´s Petroleum Safety Authority on Tuesday formally approved the use of the Goliat floating, production, storage and offloading vessel at the world´s northernmost oil field, E24 writes.

Production could potentially start already next month, as the Petroleum Safety Authority´s (PSA) approval will be on public hearing for up to five weeks.

Goliat will be the first oil field to be developed in the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea.

The field has been delayed several times and was supposed to start producing before Christmas last year, but the PSA requested additional documentation on safety and critical equipment

The PSA said the approval was based on documentation provided by the project partners, including recent letters from Eni and Statoil, and that some additional work was still required before production could start.

The estimated total production on the field is 170 million barrels oil equivalents over a period of 15 years. Estimated gas reserves are 8 billion standard cubic meters.