StatoilHydro presented an adjusted budget estimate of the Snøhvit project this week. It showed that the project will be up to 2 billion EUR more expensive than what was estimated three years ago. This is mainly due to the problems StatoilHydro has had in achieving full production at the LNG-plant. However, in total the project is still very profitable, the company management argues.
The final costs for the construction of the first phase of the project will probably end up at around 8 billion EUR. The total estimated costs for the next phases are 2.7 million EUR. This is almost 1 billion more than what was estimated by StatoilHydro in 2005. The exceeding costs for the next phases are due to increased costs for drilling rigs and other vital material.
Since the last stop of the LNG-plant this summer, Snøhvit has had 80 percent of full production the entire period.
