Page 17 - EurOil Week 13 2021

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

PGNiG, Naftogaz sign upstream MoU

UKRAINE POLAND’S listed state-controlled oil and gas Kyiv consider a country hostile to them.
exploration and production company PGNiG Poland has long said it will cease buying gas
The pair will work has signed a memorandum of understanding from Russia as soon as the Baltic Pipe – a gas link
togetherin west with Ukrainian peer Naftogaz on “cooperation from Norway – becomes operational in 2022, the
Ukraine. in exploration of hydrocarbon resources and gas year Poland’s gas supply contract with Gazprom
production in Ukraine,” PGNiG said on March expires.
30. Ukraine, meanwhile, relies on imports from
The two companies will focus efforts on West- Hungary, Poland and Slovakia to supplement
ern Ukraine, where the same promising geology its domestic production, with shipments from
extends from neighbouring Poland, PGNiG said. the three countries reaching nearly 16bn cubic
“Ukraine, which has one of the largest gas metres last year. That is approximately 60% of the
reserves in Europe, offers very attractive growth country’s annual consumption in 2019.
potential for upstream companies like PGNiG. Kyiv ceased direct purchases from Russia
We are particularly interested in gas production over five years ago for political reasons.
development in Western Ukraine, the region “I am confident that together [with PGNiG],
bordering to the area where we have already we will be able to achieve a mutually beneficial
been producing natural gas for several decades,” synergy that will contribute to Naftogaz’ stra-
PGNiG said in a statement. tegic goal - help Ukraine achieve energy inde-
According to PGNiG, available data proves a pendence in the next 10 years by driving [up] its
high reservoir potential of the region. Increasing natural gas production volumes,” Otto Water-
gas production in Western Ukraine “will be ben- lander, Naftogaz chief operating officer said in
eficial from the point of view of the development a statement.
of our companies, as well as for strengthening In 2020, Naftogaz produced 13.45bn cubic
energy security in Central and Eastern Europe”, metres (bcm) of gas, which is 73% of all gas pro-
PGNiG also said. duced in Ukraine.
Energy security is a hot economic and politi- PGNiG’s stock was unchanged at PLN5.93
cal topic in CEE, with Poland and Ukraine both (€1.27) on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on March
interested in weaning themselves of reliance on 30. Year to date, it has gained 7% while jumping
gas imports from Russia, which Warsaw and 102.2% in the past 12 months.™

Neptune confirms Dugong

size, Chrysaor strikes out

NORWAY NORTH Sea-focused Neptune Energy con- Idemitsu Petroleum has 20% and Concedo has
firmed on March 29 that its Dugong discovery 15%. The group plans to sink an exploration
Dugong could be off Norway held between 40 and 108mn barrels well in the Dugong Tail in the third quarter of
developed on a of oil equivalent (boe). the year.
standalone basis. The new estimate, which makes Dugong a In less positive news, the Norwegian Petro-
significant find, was made after results from an leum Directorate (NPD) reported on March
appraisal well were analysed. The figure could be 29 that Chrysaor’s first operated well off Nor-
altered again pending further testing. way had encountered only minor amounts
While no development plan has been decided of oil and gas. The find has been dismissed as
upon, Dugong could be exploited on a stan- “non-commercial.”
dalone basis, Neptune said. The deposit is situ- Chrysaor’s 15/12-25 well was sunk 35
ated 158 km west of Floro in waters 330 metres km south-east of Sleipner and struck into a
deep and is not far from the Snorre and Statfjord 40-metre gas and condensate column, but the
fields. Its reservoirs are found some 3,250-3,500 deposit’s size is assessed at only between 6.3
metres below the seabed. and 12.6mn boe.
The appraisal well was drilled using the Deep- “The licensees’ assessment is that it is not
sea Yantai, a semi-submersible owned by CIMC possible to develop the gas discovery,” the NPD
and operated by Odfjell. said. Licence partner Okea also confirmed that
Dugong was discovered in mid-2020. Nep- “the reservoir pressure is highly depleted and the
tune operates the licence containing the field remaining resources are interpreted to be insuf-
with a 45% interest, while Petrolia has 20%, ficient for development.” ™

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