PGNiG Buys Into North Sea Field

Polish gas company PGNiG has agreed to buy a 20% stake in the Duva oil and gas field off the coast of Norway from local explorer Wellesley Petroleum.

Duva spans licence blocks PL636 and PL636B, 140 km north of the city of Bergen, and is estimated by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) to hold 88mn barrels of oil equivalent.

PGNiG said on July 12 it had bought into the project as part of efforts to expand production offshore Norway. Duva has “exceptionally good” reservoir quality and is close to infrastructure, helping to lower development and production costs, the company said.

PGNiG is one of the biggest investors on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), with shares in 26 licences. The state-owned firm wants to set aside some of these resources to underpin the development of a 10bn m³/yr pipeline to carry Norwegian gas to Poland. The gas link, known as Baltic Pipe, is due for completion in 2022.

Duva's development will involve the drilling of three wells – two for oil and one for gas – and potentially an additional oil well, according to plans approved by Norway’s energy ministry. Production should be launched at the end of 2020, supplying around 130mn m³/yr of gas to Baltic Pipe during the pipeline’s first five years of operation, according to PGNiG.

The Duva concession is operated by London-based Neptune Energy with a 30% stake. Other shareholders include Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (30%) and Pandion Energy (20%). 

PGNiG has not said when it expects to close the purchase deal with Wellesley Petroleum, whose CEO Chris Elliott said the deal allowed it to redeploy its development resources on its operated Grosbeak development project, while maintaining focus on our core business of exploration.