Page 14 - EurOil Week 43 2021

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

NEO delivers first gas at Finlaggan

UK NORTH Sea player NEO Energy has announced infrastructure. ExxonMobil nets almost 40,000
first gas from the long-delayed Finlaggan gas barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) of sup-
Shell has meanwhile field. ply from these assets, along with 140mn boe of
launched the Arran gas NEO acquired the field in July through the reserves.
field. $625mn takeover of Zennor Petroleum. That NEO has a stated goal of ramping up produc-
acquisition boosted NEO’s reserves by around tion to 120,000 boepd by 2023. It aims to main-
40mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe). tain a stable production level of 80,000-120,000
Finlaggan is a two-well tieback to the Britan- boepd over the long term.
nia platform operated by Harbour Energy. Its gas
is exported via the SAGE system to St Fergus in Arran launch
Scotland, while its liquids are delivered to mar- In other news, Shell has launched the Arran
kets by the Forties pipelines. gas field in the UK North Sea, the company
The project got approval from UK authori- announced on October 21.
ties in October 2018. Transocean’s Paul B Loyd Arran’s development is part of Shell’s broader
Junior rig drilled its wells, while TechnipFMC Central Graben Area Plan. It will be exploited as
handled subsea construction. a tie-back via a new pipeline to the Anglo-Dutch
Production had been due to start in the major’s Shearwater offshore platform.
fourth quarter of 2020, but the project faced Shell and its partners Rockrose Energy, now
delays because of the deferral of a maintenance owned by Viaro, and Dyas, now ONE-Dyas,
shutdown at the Britannia platform owing to the took a final investment decision (FID) in Octo-
pandemic, Zennor said in September last year. ber 2018. At that time, Shell projected that pro-
NEO earlier this year agreed to buy $1bn duction would peak at 2.8mn cubic metres of gas
of North Sea assets from ExxonMobil. Among and 4,000 barrels per day (bpd) of condensate.
the divestments were stakes in 14 producing Arran is some 250 km east of Aberdeen in the
fields operated primarily by Royal Dutch Shell, Central North Sea, situated near the maritime
including Penguins, Starling, Fram, the Gannet border between the UK and Norway, in waters
cluster and the Shearwater fields, the Total-op- 85 metres deep. The field’s original discovery was
erated Elgin-Franklin deposits and associated in 1985. ™

ExxonMobil sells stakes in

Romanian project

ROMANIA ROMANIAN state-controlled natural gas com- transaction completion.
pany Romgaz announced that it reached an This agreement will be signed subject to
Sources claimt the deal agreement with US energy group ExxonMobil the endorsement of the board of directors and
amounts to around on the terms and conditions for the acquisition approval of the extraordinary general share-
€1bn. of 100% of ExxonMobil Exploration and Pro- holders meeting of Romgaz. The transaction is
duction Romania Limited, the vehicle that holds expected to be completed in the first quarter of
50% of the offshore perimeter XIX Neptun Deep 2022, subject to obtaining such approvals and to
Block. satisfaction of the conditions precedent provided
The value of the transaction is not yet pub- in the share sale-purchase agreement.
lic. Sources familiar with the deal claim that the On June 17, the parties signed an exclusiv-
transaction amounts to around €1bn. Romgaz ity agreement by which the seller has granted
will borrow €350mn from a syndicate of banks Romgaz an exclusivity right for four months
to finance the purchase from Exxon of the 50% until October 15, with respect to the negotiations
participation in the Neptun Deep offshore gas for the acquisition of all shares issued by Exxon-
project carried out with OMV Petrom. Mobil Exploration and Production Romania, a
Currently, ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom company that holds 50% of the rights and obliga-
are equal partners in the deep-sea Neptun Deep tions under the concession agreement for petro-
project, where exploration has revealed deposits leum exploration, development and production
estimated at 42bn-84bn cubic metres. in XIX Neptun Deep Block. The exclusivity
The agreement implies the transfer of opera- agreement was extended for another month in
torship of the project to OMV Petrom following early October. ™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 43 28•October•2021