Norway's Aker BP estimates Snadd development cost at $1.2 billion

OSLO, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The cost of developing Aker BP (LSE: 0M5J.L - news) 's Snadd gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea will probably ammount to 10 billion crowns ($1.19 billion), a preliminary estimate by the company showed on Wednesday.

The discovery will be developed in two phases by using subsea templates tied back to the Skarv floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO).

Current estimates are 6 billion crowns for the first phase, and 4 billion crowns for the second phase, a company spokesman said.

The costs will be finalised when Aker BP submits a plan for development and operations (PDO) later this year, with production expected to start in 2020, he added.

Snadd's ownership is identical to that of the Skarv field, in which operator Aker BP has a 23.84 percent stake, Statoil (Hamburg: 1245893.HM - news) holds 36.16 percent, DEA (Shenzhen: 002260.SZ - news) holds 28.08 percent and PGNiG 11.92 percent.

The top owners of Aker BP are Aker ASA (LSE: 0MJX.L - news) and BP Plc . ($1 = 8.3772 Norwegian crowns) (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik)