Statoil to start gas exports from Valemon field by end-2014

OSLO, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Norway's Statoil (Xetra: 675213 - news) plans to start producing gas at its new Valemon field in the North Sea by the end of this year, potentially boosting supplies to Britain via the Vesterled pipeline, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Norwegian petroleum safety authority said on Thursday it has given a permission for the gas system operator Gassco to use a pipeline between Valemon and the Heimdal field's riser platform.

The Vesterled pipeline links Heimdal with the gas terminal at St Fergus on the northeast coast of Scotland, and is used to transport gas from several other Norwegian fields, including Oseberg.

"It's planned late 2014," Statoil's spokesman Oerjan Heradstveit said, when asked about plans for starting production at Valemon, which is estimated to hold about 26 billion cubic metres of gas.

Statoil has previously said it expected the field's output to reach 3 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year.

Norway, Europe's second-biggest gas supplier after Russia, exported 102.5 bcm of pipeline gas in 2013.

Gas from the Heimdal riser platform could be also re-routed to continental Europe.

Statoil is field operator for both Heimdal and Valemon.

It holds 53.78 percent stake in Valemon. Other partners include state-owned Petoro with 30 percent, UK's Centrica with 13 percent and Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) with 3.22 percent. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Greg Mahlich)