NRG Euroil: Norway hails first 2021 find

Norway has hailed its first oil and gas discovery of 2021, near the Troll gas field in the North Sea.

The Rover North find was made by state-owned Equinor and its partners DNO, Wellesley Petroleum and Petoro at production licence (PL) 923, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on February 5. Equinor said separately that the find was 44-69mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in size, with DNO adding that it was “well above” expectations.

“The partners are considering fast-track development of the discovery with tie-back to nearly Troll area infrastructure, as well as additional drilling to test other identified prospects on the licence,” DNO said.

Troll, also operated by Equinor, is situated 10 km south-east of PL 923. There have been a number of discoveries in the area in recent years, including Echino in 2019 and Swisher in 2020.

Meanwhile in Austria, OMV has announced plans to sell its 120-strong fuel retail network in Slovenia and its European nitrogen business, as part of its €2bn ($2.4bn) divestment programme. The Austrian oil firm unveiled the programme in March, aiming to deleverage its debts, which have grown following the $4.7bn purchase of an extra 39% stake in petrochemicals producer Borealis, which was closed last October. It has already made significant progress, having cut deals for the sale of over €1bn of assets.

Lastly for this week, Norwegian firm Aker BP has said it intends to remain a pure-play oil and gas producer, despite parent company BP’s shift towards renewables and other low-carbon technologies. The company says it will still contribute to the energy transition, though. It will do this “through maximising value creation, minimising emissions, and by sharing of data and competence to other industries.”

Aker BP is targeting a 70% growth in oil and gas output by 2028. But BP is going in a starkly different direction, announcing plans last year to scale back hydrocarbon production by 40% by 2030.

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