Page 11 - EurOil Week 36 2021

EurOil ENERGY TRANSITION EurOil

OMV vows to work with

NGOs on methane leaks

AUSTRIA AUSTRIA’S OMV has said it is prepared to Seele, who stepped down at the end of June.
work with non-governmental organisations Earlier this year, while Seele was at the helm, it
Data analytics firm (NGOs) to find and repair methane leaks emerged that OMV had been using contrac-
Kayrros recently at its oil and gas infrastructure, Bloomberg tors to surveil Swedish climate activist Greta
identified large reported on September 3, after a non-profit Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement and
methane plumes from organisation recently identified dozens of Greenpeace.
gas infrastructure in methane plumes coming from energy facili- Stern said his company was committed to
Kazakhstan and Russia. ties in Romania, where the company’s OMV the Paris climate deal aimed at limiting global
Petrom subsidiary operates. temperature growth at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Methane is a far more potent greenhouse OMV estimates it has invested €1bn ($1.2bn) in
gas (GHG) than carbon dioxide, and the oil upgrading equipment and preventing methane
and gas industry is coming under increasing leaks in Romania over the past decade.
scrutiny to reduce its emissions. The Clean Air “We have no interest in leaking methane,” he
Task Force reported identifying more than 70 said, “we want to sell it.”
methane plumes at pipelines, oilfields and stor- Data analytics firm Kayrros recently identi-
age units in Romania in late August. Romania is fied large methane plumes originating from gas
one of Europe’s biggest gas producers, meaning infrastructure in Kazakhstan and Russia. These
that claims of widespread methane emissions revelations come as the European Commission
could have serious implications for its climate drafts new rules that will require operators to
credentials. detect, quantify and address their emissions. It
“We’ve been working to repair these leaks for is due to publish a proposal on the rules later this
years,’ OMV’s new CEO, Alfred Stern, said at a year.
meeting on September 2 in Vienna. “That doesn’t OMV’s OMV Petrom subsidiary is the larg-
mean we can stop. We have to continue work- est oil and gas producer working in Romania.
ing together with these NGOs to identify exactly The Austrian company has a 51% stake in its
where they are and what can be done.” subsidiary, while other shareholders include the
This apparent co-operative approach con- Romanian state with 20.6% and local fund Fon-
trasts with that of Stern’s predecessor, Rainer dul Proprietatea. ™

PROJECTS & COMPANIES

Serica launches third Rhum well

UK LONDON-LISTED operator Serica Energy has spike has been attributed to constrained supply,
brought on stream the third well at the Rhum gas stronger demand thanks to economic recovery
The R3 well was drilled field in the UK North Sea, raising the project’s and hot summer weather, and increased storage
by BP in 2005 but was output from 26,000 barrels of oil equivalent per injections.
never completed. day to 34,000 boepd. “Despite the challenges we faced, the addi-
The R3 well was drilled by BP in 2005 but tional production and accelerated cash flows
was never completed. The UK major’s work at will lead to a rapid payback on the capital
Rhum was disrupted at times because of US invested, particularly as we are immediately
sanctions on Iran, whose state-owned Iranian benefitting from the current high gas prices,”
Oil Co. (IOC) has a 50% stake in the field. Serica Serica CEO Mitch Flegg said in a statement.
took over BP’s 50% interest in Rhum in a broader “Not only will this well enable enhanced pro-
acquisition deal in 2019. duction rates from the field, but it will also
Serica kicked off intervention work at R3 in provide redundancy to help maintain future
October last year, initially hoping to finish the production.”
work in only 70 days. But the company said in Serica expects its next North Sea gas project
December that poor weather conditions and Columbus in the fourth quarter. Test flows began
technical difficulties had led to a one-month at the site in July, and at full capacity the field will
delay. yield 7,000 boepd, of which 70% will be gas. Ser-
R3’s launch comes at a fortuitous time, when ica operates the field with a 50% interest, while
European wholesale gas prices are trading at Waldorf Production and Tailwind each have
above $600 per 1,000 cubic metres. The price 25%. ™

Week 36 09•September•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11