Page 13 - EurOil Week 22 2021

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

Wintershall sheds stake in

30-year-old Russian JV

RUSSIA GERMAN oil and gas firm Wintershall Dea has and technological know-how,” Wintershall
sold its interest in one of the oldest international chairman Mario Mehren said in a statement. “A
joint ventures in Russia’s oil and gas industry. pioneering partnership that has developed into
Wolgodeminoil was set up in 1992, the year a close and trusting co-operation. We want to
after the collapse of the Soviet Union, to develop build on this and are delighted that we will con-
hydrocarbons in south Russia. The company lifts tinue our successful co-operation with Lukoil in
oil and gas from some 12 fields in the Volgograd our international projects.”
and Saratov regions, and extracted its 11 mil- Wintershall and Lukoil are both partners at
lionth tonne of crude in March. the Ghasha concession in the UAE, consisting
Wintershall said it was transferring its 50% of nine shallow fields in the Arabian Gulf west
stake in the mostly oil-focused enterprise to of Abu Dhabi. Lukoil bought a 5% stake in the
partner Ritek, a subsidiary of Russia’s Lukoil, project in October 2019, while Wintershall has
as it looks to increase its focus on natural gas in 10%, Eni has 25% and OMV has 5%. Ghasha is
Russia. The German company is developing the yet to enter production but is expected to flow
Achimov layer of the giant Urengoi field in West- at a peak rate of 14.6bn cubic metres of gas and
ern Siberia with state-owned Gazprom, and also 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) of liquids at full
produces gas from the Yuzhno-Russkoye field. capacity.
Wintershall did not say how much it had Wintershall Dea produced 321,000 barrels
received for its interest. But it said the transfer of oil equivalent per day of mostly gas in Rus-
had been confirmed by Russia’s Federal Antimo- sia in the first quarter, up from 300,000 boepd a
nopoly Service (FAS). year earlier. The growth came on the back of the
Wolgodeminoil has brought together “exper- January launch of Achimov Block 5A. The pair
tise in the oil and gas business at the highest level kicked off production at Block 4A in April. ™

BP, Baker Hughes, Odfjell Drilling team up

to extract more from Clair field

UK BP has joined forces with Baker Hughes and underwhelmed. But it noted that updated res-
Odfjell Drilling to expand production from ervoir models suggested that ultimate recovery
Western Europe’s biggest oilfield. would be maintained, “albeit with potentially the
In an announcement last week, the partners need for further wells.”
said they had formed a risk-reward sharing pact “Maximising the Clair field’s 7bn barrel
to develop the Clair field in the UK North Sea potential safely and efficiently is crucial to
that would last at least five years and could con- ensuring a sustainable future for our existing
tinue for a further four. They will initially aim to and future Clair developments,” BP’s senior
boost annual production by 15% at Clair Ridge, vice president for the North Sea, Emeka Emem-
the field’s second development phase. The joint bolu, commented. “We believe the collaborative
work will be overseen by a steering group of rep- approach of the Clair alliance – where all parties
resentatives from the three companies. They aim work towards and are rewarded by achieving
to drill the “best quality wells safely and more this common goal – is fundamental to achieving
efficiently,” forming a “single collaborative team.” this and will be crucial in our mission to become
The BP-operated Clair field was discovered in the best oil and gas business we can in the North
1977 west of Shetland, but it did not see extensive Sea.” ™
drilling until the 1990s because of its challeng-
ing reservoir characteristics. BP finally received
approval for development in 2001 and the field
came on stream in 2005 using a fixed platform.
In October last year Clair licence partner
Chrysaor, which has since merged with Premier
Oil to form Harbour Energy, revealed that pro-
duction at the first nine wells at Clair Ridge had

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