Norwegian major Statoil ASA (STO) intends to grow in the United States with investments in oil and gas assets valued in excess of $20 billion.
Statoil has high expectations with respect to growth from these assets. In 2012, the company’s North American portfolio had a compound annual growth rate of over 20%. It aims to maintain a strong growth rate going forward.
The company also expects to grow its yield by 19% to over 2.5 million barrels per day by 2020 from 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) currently. The majority of this growth is expected from the U.S., with production projected to increase nearly three times to around 500,000 barrels per day from 150,000 bpd now.
The first quarter of 2012 saw growth of nearly 75% from the prior-year quarter. This shows that the company is moving in line with its goal of reaching over 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Statoil holds a portfolio of various high-quality assets. In Mar 2013, the company emerged as the highest bidder on 15 leases in the central U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM) lease sale. This addition to its portfolio gives it control in over 340 leases in the GoM and maintains its leadership position.
The company retains interest in several major discoveries in the GoM including the recently approved Julia field, Stampede, Vito and its first GoM-operated Logan discovery.
The Julia field has five leases in the ultra-deepwater Walker Ridge area of the Gulf of Mexico, which is 265 miles southwest of New Orleans. The resource is located 30,000 feet below the surface of the ocean. The ownership of the Julia unit is equally shared between the operator, ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM) and Statoil. The oil field includes six wells with subsea tie-backs to Chevron Corporation’s (CVX) production facility Jack & St. Malo.
Statoil carries a Zacks Rank #3 (short-term Hold). However, Zacks Ranked #1 (Strong Buy) InterOil Corporation (IOC) is expected to perform better over the next few months.
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