Norway’s Power Ministry on Tuesday awarded 53 hydrocarbon manufacturing leases on the nation’s continental shelf underneath final yr’s licensing spherical.
A complete of 20 corporations, out of 21 that utilized underneath the 2024 Awards in Pre-Outlined Areas (APA), had been supplied possession pursuits. 13 firms had been supplied a number of operatorships, in accordance with a listing printed on the ministry’s web site.
“Continued growth of the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) is necessary for employment, worth creation, and the ripple results of petroleum actions on the mainland going ahead”, Power Minister Terje Aasland mentioned in an announcement.
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“We’d like new discoveries to make sure that Norway can stay a steady and predictable provider of oil and gasoline to Europe. It’s subsequently very optimistic to see such nice curiosity in new exploration areas”.
Thirty-three of the brand new licenses are on Norway’s facet of the North Sea. Nineteen are within the Norwegian Sea, whereas one is within the Norwegian portion of the Barents Sea.
The Nordic nation, the highest gasoline provider for Europe having overtaken Russia since 2022, holds about 7.1 billion customary cubic meters of oil equal remaining assets in its continental shelf. The determine consists of 3.5 billion customary cubic meters of oil equal undiscovered assets, in accordance with the Norwegian Offshore Directorate’s 2024 “Useful resource Report”.
Aker BP ASA has probably the most operatorships, numbering 16, among the many 2024 APA winners. It’s a participant in a complete of 19 licenses underneath the 2024 APA.
Fornebu, Norway-based Aker BP mentioned in a separate on-line assertion it plans to start out drilling within the former Frigg discipline, which is amongst its new NCS operatorships, within the second quarter.
“Phasing in oil and gasoline from new discoveries will likely be essential to making sure long-term exercise on the shelf”, mentioned Per Øyvind Seljebotn, senior vp for exploration and reservoir growth at Aker BP.
“Though the shelf is maturing, we handle to repeatedly determine new alternatives”, Seljebotn added. “Leveraging new expertise, digitalization and investments in new information are essential for creating good exploration alternatives for a few years to return and guaranteeing development and innovation in our sector.
“Our technique is to have a portfolio of exploration licenses that gives an excellent steadiness between exploration wells close to current fields and infrastructure, and wells that, if profitable, can kind the idea for standalone developments”.
Norway’s majority state-owned Equinor ASA gained probably the most licenses with 27. It’s operator in seven of those.
Jez Averty, Equinor senior vp for subsurface operations, mentioned in an organization assertion new acreage will assist Equinor’s purpose to drill round 250 exploration wells by 2035. At the moment it operates or participates in 20–30 exploration wells yearly, in accordance with the corporate.
Like Aker BP, Equinor is specializing in potential tiebacks to speed up startup and decrease prices. It mentioned it plans to drill about 80 % of recent exploration wells close to current infrastructure or in “recognized geology”.
“We’ve got a major portfolio of smaller discoveries close to current infrastructure”, Averty mentioned. “We’re working alongside the provider trade to speed up developments and cut back prices, which is able to be sure that a number of of those discoveries can come on stream even earlier”.
Nonetheless, Averty famous, “Regardless of most exploration wells being drilled close to current infrastructure, it is crucial that we additionally discover new areas and new concepts and ideas with the potential for extra main discoveries”.
The corporate acknowledged, “As regards discoveries that require new growth options, Equinor will prioritize options that yield low emissions”.
“With three gasoline processing vegetation, one oil refinery, two oil terminals, an LNG [liquefied natural gas] plant and a pipeline community of almost 9000 km [5,592.32 miles], the Norwegian oil and gasoline infrastructure is strategically positioned to ship vitality to our most necessary markets in Europe and the UK”, it added.
Within the third quarter of 2024 Norway continued to be the European Union’s high pipeline gasoline provider with a share of 47 %, in accordance with the European Fee’s newest quarterly gasoline market report printed December 20, 2024. Norway has been the EU’s high gasoline supply because the latter half of 2022, months after Russia invaded Ukraine, in accordance with Fee information.
Final yr Norway’s pure gasoline output set a brand new file with 124 billion customary cubic meters offered, in comparison with the earlier file of 122.8 billion customary cubic meters offered in 2022. Norway’s complete oil and gasoline manufacturing final yr was the best since 2009, reaching 240 million customary cubic meters of oil equal, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate reported January 9. Gasoline accounts for over half of manufacturing on the NCS, it mentioned, including a lot of the gasoline is exported to Europe.
The opposite winners within the 2024 APA are Concedo AS (3 licenses), ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS (3), DNO Norge AS (13), Harbour Power Norge AS (4), INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS (8), Lime Petroleum AS (1), M Vest Power AS (2), A/S Norske Shell (1), OKEA ASA (8), OMV (Norge) AS (4), Orlen Upstream Norway AS(8), Pandion Power Norge AS (3), Petrolia NOCO AS (5), Supply Power AS (1), Sval Energi AS (7), TotalEnergies EP Norge AS (2), Vår Energi ASA (16) and Wellesley Petroleum AS (3).
To contact the creator, e mail jov.onsat@rigzone.com
