Norwegian Tommeliten Project Advances: PGNiG
US major ConocoPhillips has moved the Tommeliten Alpha gas field up a notch to the year-long 'select' stage, partner PGNiG said June 11, meaning its development is now certain. The select stage is the period where key technical decisions are made, leading to a final selection of the development concept scheduled for Q3 2020.
“The conclusions of the assess phase are in line with our expectations and confirm the validity of our decision to purchase shares in Tommeliten Alpha. The field is economically attractive and will significantly increase our gas production in Norway," said PGNiG Piotr Wozniak. “The preparatory works for the development of Tommeliten Alpha are on schedule and we assume the start of the production in 2024.”
The decisions taken over the next year will lead to a final selection of concept that will have an impact on cost, operational expenditures, risk of deferral, execution schedule and eventually first gas.
According to PGNiG estimates, the Tommeliten Alpha will add 0.5bn m³/yr to its Norwegian output in the first six years of the production. At peak, it will also be able to produce about 500,000 metric tons of oil and natural gas liquids.
Tommeliten Alpha is a gas and condensate field with recoverable resources of 12.8bn m³, 5mn mt of oil and 500,000 ,t of liquids. That is about 52mn boe net to PGNiG.
PGNiG bought over 42% of Tommeliten Alpha from Equinor in December 2018. The operator is ConocoPhillips (28.3%) and other partners are French Total (20.2%) and Var Energi (9.1%). Set up last December, Var is a company formed from Point Resources and Italian Eni's Norwegian assets.
Norway, and LNG, are the two sources of gas that Poland is counting on to replace Russian gas when its contract expires in the coming few years. It is building a dedicated pipeline from the Norwegian continental shelf to Poland, by way of Denmark, to deliver the gas directly. At the moment its Norwegian gas output is delivered by subsea pipeline to Germany.