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ENERGY NEWS
The European Union’s efforts to reduce its energy dependence on Russia, oil and gas developments and discoveries offshore Norway, and a number of low-carbon deals and announcements were the highlights of Europe’s energy sector in April.
Europe
Energy Review By Tsvetana Paraskova
Oil & Gas In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in an attempt to reduce Vladimir Putin’s revenues from energy exports, the EU adopted in early April the fifth round of sanctions against Russia over its military aggression against Ukraine. The sanctions package includes a prohibition to purchase, import, or transfer coal and other solid fossil fuels into the EU if they originate in Russia or are exported from Russia, as from August 2022. The sanctions also ban access to EU ports to vessels registered under the flag of Russia, with derogations granted for agricultural and food products, humanitarian aid, and energy.
While it banned coal imports from Russia, the EU continued to be split at the end of April over a potential oil embargo, and it had not even started a serious discussion about banning gas imports from Russia.
increased supplies to the UK and Europe. Around 70% of Neptune Energy’s Norwegian production is gas, and the company is currently investigating opportunities to ramp up gas production from other fields within its portfolio.
In the meantime, countries continued to seek to diversify their sources of natural gas. Italy, for example, signed deals with gas producers in Africa, including Algeria, Egypt, and the Republic of Congo, for increased gas production and supply to Italy and Europe. Denmark, for its part, plans to temporarily raise natural gas production from its sector of the North Sea, to help Denmark and Europe replace Russian supply in the short term, until green solutions can replace most of the gas use.
“Extended licenses in the Greater Ekofisk Area will contribute to sustainable and long-term investments, which again provides continued value creation, jobs and ripple effects. In addition, it ensures future energy supply security from the oil and gas province in the southwestern part of the North Sea", said Steinar Våge, President of ConocoPhillips Europe, Middle East and North Africa.
Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has extended the production licences in the Greater Ekofisk Area from 2028 to 2048 with ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS as operator.
Neptune Energy and its partners announced in early April that gas production would be doubled from the Duva field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, supporting
www.ogv.energy I May 2022
Aker BP and its partner Pandion Energy announced on 11 April that production had started from Hod B in the southern North Sea offshore Norway. The companies expect to produce 40 million barrels of oil from the field, which was advanced after Norway introduced in 2020 temporary changes in the petroleum tax regime to create activity for its domestic supplier industry. Equinor announced an oil and gas discovery by the North Sea Troll and Fram area. Based on preliminary estimates, the size of the discovery, named Kveikje, is 25-50 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. Shearwater GeoServices Holding said it was awarded a large 4D ocean bottom node baseline project by Equinor for a two-month survey on the Krafla, Askja, and Sentral fields in the Norwegian North Sea.
