2nd UPDATE:Kvitebjoern May Stay Shut Till At Least Spring 09
Wednesday August 20th, 2008 / 11h36
(Recasts and adds detail, trader comment.) OSLO -(Dow Jones)- StatoilHydro ASA (STO) said Wednesday the Kvitebjoern gas field could remain closed until after a planned repair program to the associated gas export pipeline has been carried out in spring 2009, but added that it's looking into ways of bringing the repairs forward. The company had decided after evaluation that the export pipe would continue to be used before the repair program, despite it having been dragged out of place by a ship anchor last autumn. But a new problem - a gas leak detected in the area adjacent to the older damage - means the pipe will now stay offline until the planned repairs have been carried out, StatoilHydro spokeswoman Rannveig Stangeland said. "Kvitebjoern will be offline for as long as the pipe is shutdown...Our (existing) plan is to repair the pipeline in spring 2009," Stangeland said. But she added: "We're looking into ways of repairing it now, hoping to get it repaired quicker." The repair program was due to take place this summer, but was postponed for reasons the company hasn't divulged. It was expected to take around two months. Market watchers said it's possible that if pipelaying equipment could be found quickly enough, the repairs could be carried out before this winter, enabling flows to continue through the traditionally higher priced months. U.K. future gas prices rose sharply on news of the prolonged shutdown. Gas traders said they expected 10 million to 20 million cubic meters a day of gas supplies will be lost during the outage. "I guess (StatoilHydro) will supply all their customers from the (short-term gas) market," said one London-based gas trader. "They have bought shedloads on (the U.K. gas trading hub) NBP this morning," he said. At 0939 GMT, the price of gas for delivery on the NBP in September was up 5.6% from Tuesday's close at 55 pence a therm. Gas for October delivery was up 4.6% at 71.35p/th. Despite the unexpected outage at Kvitebjoern, StatoilHydro maintained its 2008 equity production guidance figure of 1.9 million barrels of oil a day. Stangeland said that Kvitebjoern was already offline for maintenance which started earlier this month, when the small leak was found on the field's gas export pipeline. Norwegian Petroleum Directorate figures show Kvitebjoern is expected to produce 23,000 barrels of oil a day and a total of 6.08 billion cubic meters of gas in 2008. Those figures look likely to be slashed by at least a third, unless the company can get repairs out of the way before winter. Company Web site: http://www.statoilhydro.com -By Elizabeth Cowley, Dow Jones Newswires; +47 22 20 10 58; elizabeth.cowley@dowjones.com (James Herron in London contributed to this story.) Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=17jN%2BY%2BLk7RqyXnxJNeFvw%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
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