German oil company Wintershall Dea will hand over its second development and operation plan (PUD) to Norwegian authorities on Tuesday this autumn. After new investments of four billion in the Maria oil field, it is now the Dvalin Nord gas project in the Norwegian Sea that ends up on the table of the Minister of Oil and Energy Terje Aasland (Ap).
Here, according to a press release from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, operator Wintershall and partners Petoro and Sval Energi will invest around NOK 7.7 billion to build a new underwater facility that will be connected to the Dvalin field ten kilometers further South. Production of Dvalin and Dvalin Nord continues at the Heidrun field, before being sent via the Nyhamna plant to the UK and mainland Europe. Dvalin North has reserves of 84 million barrels of oil equivalent, and just like in Dvalin, almost everything is gas.
– I am delighted to receive yet another development plan for new resources in the Norwegian Sea and would like to congratulate Wintershall Dea and its partners for providing a development plan for Dvalin Nord already this year, which was the biggest discovery on the Norwegian continental shelf last year, says Terje Aasland.
– The Dvalin Nord development demonstrates that the Norwegian Sea is important for Norwegian gas production. The project will make major contributions to value creation and employment, as well as much-sought-after gas in Europe when the field goes into production, he adds.
Dvalin was supposed to work a long time ago, but after the start-up in November 2020, mercury levels were found to be too high in the gas stream and the export was postponed. Wintershall’s Norwegian manager Michael Zechner recently told DN that the project should start within months. For Dvalin Nord, this will happen in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Dvalin Nord was the biggest discovery on the NCS in 2021 and the development plan will therefore be delivered relatively soon. Since the plan is in the hands of the authorities by the end of 2022, it will be part of the favorable oil tax package launched during the pandemic, as the ministry approves it within the next year.
There is a lot of attention being paid to Norway’s gas production right now, after the country became Europe’s largest supplier because Russian exports have all but disappeared.
Project challenges
DN wrote earlier this month that Wintershall, which then delivered two PUDs in short order, had difficulties with all three development projects the company has so far been responsible for as operator on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Maria experienced problems with the pressure in the field after the start of production in 2017, which led to a loss of reserves in the first phase of the field by 45%. At Nova, which started production this summer, there are problems with water injection, which the company is now trying to fix, and Dvalin is therefore late.
Zechner acknowledged that the company has “had some bad luck” but stressed that there is no connection between the problems on the three projects. For his part, Oil Minister Aasland stressed that Wintershall is one of the companies that is helping to further develop the Norwegian continental shelf.
– They are involved in complicated and difficult projects. I find Wintershall Dea a good player on the Norwegian continental shelf. They have been involved in carrying out many important decisions, he said she. (Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases using the links, which lead directly to our pages. Copying or other forms of use of all or part of the content may only take place with written permission or as permitted by law. For additional terms see her.
