Italian oil company Eni’s huge Goliat oil and gas project in the Barents Sea has been delayed once again. Production was supposed to have begun two years ago, but now the company has missed its March 1 start-up date as well.
“Even though most everything is ready to start up production, we need to use some more time to get certain elements in place,” Andreas Wulff, communications director for Eni Norge, told newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad earlier this week. The company had declared early last month that production would begin on Tuesday, but now it’s reluctant to pinpoint any specific date.
The project, located on an oil and gas field 85 kilometers northwest of Hammerfest in the Norwegian Arctic, has been plagued by problems surrounding construction of the floating production platform commissioned for it. News bureau NTB reported that the Goliat project more recently has been delayed by various demands made by petroleum and anti-pollution authorities, and criticism that the demands weren’t followed up.
The project is now way behind schedule and has become at least 50 percent more expensive than originally planned, reported Stavanger Aftenblad, at the same time that the price of oil has plummeted.
newsinenglish.no staff
