OREANDA-NEWS. February 10, 2015. Norwegian oil and gas firm Statoil has chosen an unmanned wellhead platform as the concept for the Oseberg Future development phase I project offshore Norway, it said on Monday.

"The alternative was to place the wells on the seabed, but the costs of subsea wells have been tripled during the last decade," Anders Opedal, senior vice president of projects in Statoil said in a statement.

He added that the jacket-based unmanned wellhead platform will reduce costs by several hundred million Norwegian crowns.

Unmanned wellhead platforms without facilities, helicopter deck and lifeboats are new to Norway, but they have been used for some time internationally, Statoil added.

The unmanned platform would be controlled from the Oseberg field centre.

The investment decision is expected next winter.