Statoil A.S.A., Norway’s state developer of the vast Snøhvit offshore Arctic gas field, has admitted yet another cost hike in construction (ENR 4/25 p.30). Now put at $9.2 billion, the cost of extracting, piping to shore and liquefying the gas has climbed 19% since the first firm forecast was made, "mainly because the project was not sufficiently mature when it was sanctioned in 2001," says Chief Executive Helge Lund. Gas deliveries from the LNG plant off Hammerfest are now scheduled for December 2007. Project control has been transferred to another Statoil team, reports the company.