OFFSHORE EUROPE

Wintershall’s licenses in the Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea, including its recent Maria oil discovery.

The first of these, under the so-called “Wave 1” program, will be Pan Pandora and Katla in the North Sea, two 60MMboe prospects which will be connected respectively to the Gullfaks C and Oseberg South platforms. “Wave 2” will include accumulations close to Snorre and to the Norne field facilities in the Norwegian Sea, both of which have spare capacity. The likeliest candidates for development here are Forsekall (37-63 MMboe) and Dompamp. Beyond that, there are other tie-in prospects in license PL 303 in the Greater Sleipner Area of the North Sea.

Statoil has 60 small marginal projects in its portfolio, and is looking to develop these fields as subsea tiebacks within two and a half years of discovery, with the onus on suppliers to provide increasingly lower-cost, standardized (repeat) subsea solutions.

Independent companies may end up providing more mainstream work to Norwegian fabricators. One of the next big projects could be Lundin’s Greater Luno in the southern Norwegian North Sea. Managing director Torstein Sanness said at ONS that development options included a semisubmersible production and living quarters platform; a fixed platform; and a Sevan Marine cylindrical FPSO. But the scheme could also be widened to take in Det Norske Oljeselskap’s Draupne discovery to the north.

Another increasingly active company in the sector is Wintershall, which this summer discovered Maria in the Norwegian Sea, a 60-120 MMbbl oil field with associated gas. “The good thing about Maria is that it is mainly oil in a province where there is a bottleneck at present for gas field developments,” said Exploration Team Leader Odd Helge Hatland, again at ONS.

The company is looking to drill the high-pressure Mjosa prospect in this area, either next year or in 2012. And it also participates in three exploration licenses in the Norwegian Barents Sea, over two of which CGGVeritas has just shot 3D seismic data for operators BG and OMV. The area is characterized by complex structuring, Hatland said, but may be prospective for oil.

TAQA UK overhaul pays off

TAQA Bratani has passed its first anniversary as duty holder of four production complexes in the northern North Sea, formerly operated by Shell Expro. During that time, according to managing director Leo Koot, the focus at the Cormorant Alpha, North Cormorant, Tern and Eider assets has been on ensuring platform and well integrity, reactivating the platform drilling rigs in the case of North Cormorant and Tern, and improving overall efficiency.

The $430-million program boosted combined production from these fields from 25,000 b/d in September 2009 to over 40,000 b/d by end of 1Q 2010. Since then, the semisubStena Spey has drilled two infill wells on Pelican, a subsea tieback to Cormorant Alpha. Tullow has also discovered and appraised the Falcon oil field, which will be developed next year through the Tern platform. And last month, the company agreed to acquire Total’s operating interest in the Otter oil field, currently producing 8,000 b/d via a tieback to Eider.

Another UK operator making a pitch for producing fields is Dana Petroleum, which has agreed to pay Petro-Canada $372 million for a package including five subsea producers in the central North Sea (Clapham, Guillemot West and Northwest, Pict, and Saxon), and interests in the Nexen-operated Scott and Telford fields. Earlier this summer, Dana also took on Petro-Canada’s Dutch North Sea portfolio, although completion of this latest transaction may be affected by Korea National Oil Company’s hostile $1.8-billion bid for Dana.

VNG takes stake in Svane

DONG Energy has farmed out 15% of two licenses in the Danish North Sea to German-owned VNG Denmark. Permit 4/98 contains the deep-lying gas discovery Svane while 3/09 includes the Solsort exploration prospect.

Svane was last drilled by previous operator ConocoPhillips in 2001, with indications of a large gas reservoir. But technical problems related to pressure forced the abandonment of the operation. DONG and its partners are working on a new appraisal program, which may lead to a resumption of drilling next year.

According to DONG E&P President Soren Gath Hansen, speaking at ONS 2010, Solsort is a black oil prospect not far from the Hess-operated Syd Arne field, which will definitely be drilled later this year. DONG is also a partner at Syd Arne, where recoverable reserves are now assessed at 190 MMbbl, more than double the original estimate of 90 MMbbl.

Hansen said the partners were looking to further develop the field in various ways. Most recently, this has involved drilling under-balanced wells due to changes in reservoir pressure. DONG has also upgraded its oil estimate for the Nini and Cecilie fields elsewhere in the Danish offshore sector from 50M Mbbl to a probable 125 MMbbl. Earlier this year, the company brought on stream the satellite Nini East accumulation, and other satellites -- such as Stine -- could follow. Additionally, DONG may opt to drill new accumulations in the area under what Hansen called a “vacuum cleaning strategy.”