Page 15 - Euroil Week 19 2020

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil
Norway approves series of exploration wells
NORWAY
Norway’s tax regime supports exploration drilling when prices are low.
NORWEGIAN authorities have cleared the drilling of a number of new exploration wells, despite operators’ steep cuts to exploration spending this year.
Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) on May 11 approved a request by Austria’s OMV to sink an exploration well and a sidetrack at pro- duction licence (PL) 644 in the Norwegian Sea. The wells will be drilled by the Island Innovator semi-submersible, taking 99 and 23 days to com- plete respectively, the PSA said.
OMV is targeting the Hades gas and conden- sate discovery, which it made in 2018 along with the adjacent Iris find. The company suffered a setback last year, when an appraisal well at Iris resulted in the field’s recoverable reserves being revised to 25-75mn barrels of oil equivalent, from 19-132mn boe.
Hades’ resources are assessed at 19-113mn boe.
OMV has discussed using nearby infrastruc- ture belonging to Norway’s Equinor to exploit the discoveries. But it is yet to file development plans.
The Austrian firm is partnered at the licence with Equinor, Norway’s DNO and the UK’s Spirit Energy.
The PSA also said on May 6 it had given approval to the UK’s Neptune Energy to drill an exploration well and sidetrack at PL 882 in the Norwegian North Sea, using the Deepsea Yantai semi-submersible. The wells are anticipated to take 44-90 days to complete.
Neptune is exploring the Dugong prospect, located near Equinor’s Snorre field. Its partners at the site are the US’ Petrolia, Norway’s Concedo and Japan’s Idemitsu.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) announced on May 11 it had permitted Equinor to drill a wildcat at PL 827 S, using the West Hercules semi-submersible. Its partner there is DNO. The following day it also cleared new wildcats by Sweden’s Lundin Energy at licence 533 B and Spirit Energy at licence 719.
The oil price crash has hit exploration spend- ing across the world hard. Norwegian explora- tion has fared better, as the country’s tax regime allows companies to deduct almost 80% of their exploration costs from taxable income. The NPD estimated in April that Norwegian oper- ators had reduced the number of planned wells this year from 50 to 40 – a relatively modest decrease considering the unprecedented mar- ket turmoil. ™
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