Statoil will proceed with an ambitious plan to provide power to the North Sea Johan Sverdrup field via high-power subsea cables from shore, the company confirmed.The statement was issued in response to reports that Statoil had abandoned the shore-to-field power scheme due to cost overruns.

“We are not considering any other solutions for the Johan Sverdrup field than land-based power supply,” said Øyvind Reinertsen, senior vice president for the Johan Sverdrup field.

“The project and the licensees based their concept assessment on power supply from land at an early stage, and we have not considered any other options,” Reinertsen said.

Statoil said the project would soon settle on a concept and development solution that includes power supply from land “based on technical and financial assessments.”

Statoil and partners Lundin Petroleum, Maersk Oil, Petoro, and DNO plan to submit formal development plans to Norwegian authorities in late 2014 and have set a production start date for 4Q 2018.

Joahn Sverdrup is in production licenses 501 and 265 about 140 km (87 mi) west of Stavanger, in water depths of 110 m (361 ft). Statoil will operate the project up to submission of the plan for development and operation.