Norway Raises Troll Cap
Norway's Petroleum and Energy Ministry has confirmed that it has increased the amount that may be produced from the largest Norwegian gas field.
"Statoil applied for increased production quota for the Troll field for the gas year 2016, running from October this year," said ministry press spokesman Hakon Smith-Isaksen told NGE on April 6. "The Ministry has approved this application, and the quota for Troll for the coming period is 33bn m3."
The Troll production quota for the current 12-month period ending Sep.30 2016 is 30bn m3.
Norway's production of sales gas in 2015 totalled 117.2bn m3, which was 8bn m3 more than in 2014, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the country's upstream regulator, said earlier this year.
Societe Generale senior gas analyst Dr Thierry Bros said the raising of the Troll quota shows that Norway, like Russia, aims to defend their European market share prior to the arrival of [low-priced] US LNG. He added that the probability of a price war in the coming months is increasing.
Statoil operates Troll with a 30.58385% interest, with Norwegian state holding Petoro's stake 56%. Other shareholders are Royal Dutch Shell 8.10145%, Total 3.69096% and ConocoPhillips 1.62374%. Shell was Troll's development operator until the field, which also produces some oil, started production some 20 years ago.
Norway's raising of the cap for its largest gasfield contrasts with the situation in the Netherlands. There, the cap on Europe's largest gasfield -- Groningen in the north of the Netherlands - is now 27bn m3, half of what was produced there in 2013.
Mark Smedley