12
ENERGY NEWS
New oil and gas projects offshore Norway amid high activity on the Norwegian shelf this year, as well as plans and forecasts for emission reductions in the UK, were the highlights of Europe’s energy markets in the past few weeks.
By Tsvetana Paraskova
Europe
Energy Review
Oil & Gas Despite COVID-related challenges, activity in offshore Norway was high during the first half of 2021, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said in July. Oil and gas production has stayed high, eight discoveries were made, and many new development projects are on the drawing board, the directorate said. Exploration activity is set to remain high for the rest of the year, with around 40 exploration wells expected to be drilled in 2021, compared to 31 exploration wells spudded in 2020, the NPD said. “Exploration has enormous significance for longterm value creation on the shelf. The addition of oil and gas resources from new discoveries, like we have seen so far this year, is necessary to prevent a sharp decline in petroleum industry activity after 2030. Without new discoveries,
www.ogv.energy I September 2021
production could fall by more than 70% in 2040 compared with 2020”, said Torgeir Stordal, director of Technology and coexistence at the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. The directorate approved at the end of July the start-up of the Duva field in the North Sea, where the operator Neptune Energy estimates the reserves at about 71 million barrels of oil equivalent. The Duva oil and gas field, discovered in 2016, is ready for start-up with a subsea installation comprising four wells, three oil and one gas producing well. The field is located 14 kilometres northeast of the Gjøa field and the subsea template is tied into existing subsea infrastructure on Gjøa. On 23 August Neptune Energy and its partners announced the safe and successful start-up of production from the Duva development. Equinor and its partners installed a pump on the seabed to give the Vigdis oil field in the
North Sea a boost that increases production by around 16 million barrels. The Vigdis subsea field has produced oil via the Snorre field for 24 years. When the field came on stream in 1997, it was expected to produce 200 million barrels. So far, it has produced twice as much, and new estimates suggest the recoverable resources are 475 million barrels. The Norwegian authorities granted in August Repsol consent for a new start-up of the Yme field in the North Sea, which was shut down in 2001, when continued operation was not considered to be profitable. Yme is one of the first oil fields on the Norwegian shelf to be redeveloped. Lundin Energy announced in August first oil from the Extended Well Test (EWT) at its operated Rolvsnes field, the first subsea tie back development for the Edvard Grieg platform. The resource estimate for the Rolvsnes field is between 14 and 78 million barrels of oil equivalent gross.
