Norway's Nova Plan Approved

BASF-owned Wintershall said October 1 that its plan to develop Nova field for first oil in 2021 has been approved by Norway’s petroleum ministry.

The approved Nova plan for development and operation (PDO) - submitted in May and mainly on PL418 - calls two subsea templates located on the ocean floor tied back to the nearby Neptune-operated Gjoa platform, through which oil will be exported. The project is expected to cost €1.1bn ($1.3bn). The nearby Gjoa field will provide uplift gas to the field, water injection for pressure support, and power.

Nova’s recoverable reserves are estimated around 80mn barrels of oil equivalent, most of which are oil, said Wintershall. It is mostly on PL418. Norwegian upstream regulator NPD puts Nova’s estimated field resource at 12.2mn cubic meters of oil equivalent, of which 9.1mn oil, 2mn gas, and 1.2mn natural gas liquids.  

Wintershall’s third operated Norwegian subsea field (after Vega and Maria), Nova is operated by Wintershall with 35%, Cairn Energy 20%, Spirit Energy 20%, EDF-owned Edison 15% and DEA 10%.

DEA and Wintershall’s parent companies agreed a final agreement on their merger September 27.