Shrinking reserves for StatoilHydro
Norwegian oil and gas major StatoilHydro last year only managed to obtain one barrel of oil in reserves for every third barrel the company sold. The so-called reserve replacement ratio was down to 34 percent.
Chairman of the board Stein Rennemo is not pleased with the results, newspaper Dagens Næringsliv reports: - The reserve replacement ratio is almost halved compared to the average for the last years. We are not happy with this. We have to intesify work, he concludes.
The company’s reserve replacement ratio for 2007 was 86 percent. As long as the company finds less than 100 percent of the amount that is being produced, it means the company is shrinking.
StatoilHydro’s proved oil reserves at the end of 2008 amounted to 5.6 billion barrels. The company is producing 1.9 million barrels of oil every day.
StatoilHydro CEO Helge Lund says the picture looks better if one consideres the so-called resources base, which has a broader definition than the oil reserves. Statoil’s resources base is estimated to 20 billion barrels.
As BarentsObserver wrote, StatoilHydro is forced to cut investment projects and lower activities because of the financial crisis and low oil prices.
