Norwegian companies Equinor ASA, Aker BP ASA and Vår Energi ASA on Monday announced a collaboration to explore the largest remaining reserves in the country’s waters to sustain production as existing developments become depleted.
The partnership aims to test 20-25 exploration “opportunities” over the next four to five years, with an annual drilling target of about five “high-impact” wells, a joint statement said. Ultimately the goal is to have standalone projects, going beyond the current trend of tying back smaller discoveries to existing infrastructure, for long-term value creation.
“The companies have agreed to combine expertise, data, technology and exploration capacity to pursue selected high-impact exploration opportunities”, the trio said.
“In recent years, most discoveries have been made close to existing infrastructure. Developing these resources through subsea tiebacks is important for maintaining production from existing fields and facilities. Near-field exploration will remain crucial, but larger discoveries will also be needed to provide the resource base for new standalone field developments”, they said.
“The companies see continued potential for such discoveries. However, some of the largest remaining opportunities come with higher geological uncertainty, greater complexity and larger investment requirements. This has made it increasingly challenging to establish partnerships around high-impact prospects.
“By sharing risk and combining capabilities, the companies can pursue and test more of these opportunities than they would individually.
Prospective projects under the partnership could maintain “reliable energy supplies from the NCS [Norwegian continental shelf] to Europe as production is expected to decline after 2035 without new discoveries and developments”, the statement said.
Aker BP chief executive Karl Johnny Hersvik said, “New technologies could open new, significant plays”.
Recently the government renewed calls for companies to explore more frontier areas, noting about half of approximately seven billion cubic meters (around 247 billion cubic feet) of oil equivalent remaining resources in the NCS have yet to be discovered.
“By comparison, approximately nine billion scm oe have been produced and delivered”, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) reported last Thursday.
“In the short term, swifter field development can curb the decline in production by picking up the pace from discovery to production. Such measures can bring production forward in time and accelerate value creation. However, they do not address the fundamental issue, which is that resource growth is too low”, the NOD warned.
“The High North has the largest resource potential remaining on the NCS. Large areas of the Barents Sea remain underexplored”, it noted.
More Gas Exports from Troll
Equinor announced separately on Monday phase 3 stage 2 of Troll, Norway’s largest gas-producing field, is now onstream.
“The project accelerates production of 55 billion standard cubic meters of gas from the Troll West reservoir. This corresponds to nearly two years of France’s gas demand”, Equinor said.
Lill Harriet Brusdal, vice president for Troll and Kvitebjørn, said, “Troll is the backbone of Norwegian gas exports to Europe. This project accelerates production from the reservoir, helping maintain today’s high level of gas exports from Troll and Kollsnes for as long as possible”.
Phase 3 started production 2021. Stage 2 developed eight additional wells, while earlier this year Equinor and its Troll partners approved the next phase through the TWIN project.
Equinor operates Troll with a 30.55 percent stake. Its partners are Petoro AS (55.93 percent), Shell PLC (8.19 percent), TotalEnergies SE (3.69 percent) and ConocoPhillips (1.64 percent).
source: Rigzone