Offshore staff
LONDON – Denmark’s parliament has voted to end all exploration and production in the Danish North Sea by 2050.
In addition, the government has canceled a planned eighth licensing round and will issue no further licenses.
However, exploration and development activity can continue on existing licenses.
Daniel Rogers, oil and gas analyst at GlobalData, said: “The news follows in the footsteps of other decarbonizing countries that have or plan to implement bans on domestic petroleum exploration such as Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand. With the energy transition gathering pace in some regions, it is also highly likely that others will follow.
“This is the final blow for Danish hydrocarbon exploration which was in need of revival. The last hydrocarbon discovery in Denmark was made over five years ago and since then, little success has been met by the limited drilling activity in the country.
“The Jill-1 well drilled last year by Hess, in the Danish offshore, followed a five-year exploration drilling hiatus, but failed to find commercial hydrocarbons.”
Total and its partners in the Danish Underground Consortium continue to invest in the Tyra and Halfdan hub areas. But as Rogers pointed out, COVID-19 related delays look set to push back the restart of production from Tyra, currently undergoing a redevelopment.
With Tyra offline, and Denmark’s domestic gas production in decline, volumes of gas imports have accelerated so that after years of being a net gas exporter, the country is now a net importer of gas (and oil).
“These plans build on a more regional movement towards lower carbon energy that has been growing across Europe,” Rogers added.
12/07/2020
