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OMV Makes Barents Sea Discovery of Up to 164M Barrels of Oil

OMV Makes Barents Sea Discovery of Up to 164M Barrels of Oil
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Παρ, 6 Σεπτεμβρίου 2013 - 16:53
Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG (OMV.VI) said Friday it had discovered up to 164 million barrels of oil in the Barents Sea, and the license area in which the find was made could hold up to 500 million barrels, confirming the Arctic area's rich resources.
Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG (OMV.VI) said Friday it had discovered up to 164 million barrels of oil in the Barents Sea , and the license area in which the find was made could hold up to 500 million barrels, confirming the Arctic area's rich resources.

The discovery in license 537, or Wisting, 310 kilometers north of Hammerfest in northern Norway , is expected to hold between 63 million and 164 million barrels of recoverable oil, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said.

OMV said the potential recoverable oil volumes in license 537 could be between 200 million and 500 million barrels of oil equivalent, but further drilling is needed to confirm the size.

The well was drilled to a depth of 905 meters under the ocean floor, at a water depth of 373 meters. This is the first well in drilling license 537, which was awarded to OMV by the Norwegian government in 2009.

In the last decade, Norway has changed its oil policy to allow more companies to explore the Norwegian continental shelf. Medium-sized companies have strengthened their position, taking over from the oil majors, according to the Petroleum Directorate.

The directorate expects the Barents Sea holds undiscovered resources of 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent, most of it natural gas.

In August, OMV agreed to buy stakes in oil fields from Norway 's Statoil ASA (STO) for $2.65 billion, including a stake in the Gullfaks field offshore Norway . The company also holds stakes in several new oil and gas projects in Norway , including Aasta Hansteen and Edvard Grieg.

OMV plans to increase its total output to 350,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2016, and the Statoil acquisitions are expected to increase that figure to 400,000 barrels a day.

The Wisting discovery could renew optimism in the oil sector about the Barents Sea after the 2011 discovery of the Statoil-operated Johan Castberg field, which was one of Norway 's biggest discoveries in the last decade with expected volumes of between 400 million and 600 million barrels of crude oil.

Statoil's plans for a pipeline and an onshore terminal in northern Norway to serve the Johan Castberg field could also serve the needs of other oil-producing fields. But rising costs have led Statoil to delay a decision on the investment, highlighting the difficulties of operating in remote Arctic areas.

Norway 's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said in June that the break-even oil price for the Johan Castberg field had risen to $81 a barrel from $64 a barrel, with $10 of the increase due to higher costs and lower resource estimates, and $7 due to a government tax change.

OMV holds a 25% stake in license 537. Idemitsu Petroleum Norway holds 20%, Petoro AS 20%, Tullow Oil Norway 20% and Statoil 15%.

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