Norwegian Industry Sends Good Energy Security News to Brussels

While the Dutch gas industry continues suffering, recent developments in Norway are good news for Europe’s energy security, with a mix of positive explorations results and production coming on stream hinting at a stable production levels.

On Wednesday, Statoil announced a gas discovery in the Snefrid Nord prospect in the Norwegian Sea. According to the company, the discovery will contribute to the Aasta Hansteen field development.  

“The Snefrid Nord discovery increases the resource base for the Aasta Hansteen field development project by around 15%” Irene Rummelhoff, senior vice president exploration Norway in Statoil, commented in a note. 

The discovery well proved a 105-metre gas column in the Nise Formation, with estimates ranging between 31 and 57 millions of recoverable oil equivalent. 

“Near-field exploration is the main focus of our Norwegian continental shelf exploration programme in 2015,” Rummelhoff added.

According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, this is the fifth exploration well in production licence 218, which was awarded on 2 February 1996 in the 15th licensing round.  

Also on Wednesday, Knarr, a gas and oil field about 100 kilometres (62.14 miles) north of the Statfjord field in the North Sea, started oil production. 

‘BG Group today announced the Petrojarl Knarr floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel had started production from the Knarr oil field in the North Sea, offshore Norway’ reads a communiqué published by the UK-based company. 

On Tuesday, Norway-headquartered Aker Solutions reiterated its commitment to subsea and field design markets, explaining that the split in two companies announced in September will help it reducing complexity and bringing down costs.

‘Aker Solutions yesterday won a contract from Statoil to deliver a concept study for future phases of the North Sea Johan Sverdrup development,’ Aker Solutions wrote on its website on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, Dutch gas trading company GasTerra announced a decrease in gas volumes and revenues. 

‘This decrease has two main causes. Firstly, the volume reduced due to higher average temperatures and the decision by the Dutch government to limit the gas production in Groningen to a maximum of 42.5 billion cubic meters’ GasTerra reported on Wednesday