The Norwegian petroleum company Statoil considers the return of oil prices to around $100 per barrel unlikely in the long term. It is reported by the Norwegian business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv with reference to the statement by the head of the company, Eldar Setre.
“It’s a blow to our entire portfolio of assets,” said Setre.
Previously, the company had forecast that prices will return to $80 per barrel by 2018 and will continue to grow, reaching $ 100 per barrel for 5-10 years. The adjusted forecast, according to Setre, is more realistic: $55 per barrel in 2017, $75 – in 2020, and $80 – in 2030.
As Setre pointed, the company successfully implements a program to optimize costs, reducing the costs by $3.2 billion in 2016, and plans to reduce them by another $ 1 billion in 2017.
To date, the company has achieved a payback of new projects (with the start of production before 2022) at an oil price of $ 27 per barrel. Whereas in 2016 the company drilled only 23 exploration wells, then in the current year it is planned to drill 30.
