About 20 oil companies present their plans at the NCS Exploration Strategy Conference currently taking place in Stavanger.
Among the presenters are large Norwegian players such as Equinor, Aker BP and Lundin, as well as international companies such as Shell and Total.
Aker BP informed the audience that in next year’s exploration budget, 90 percent will be spent on infrastructure-led exploration (ILX). At the same time, Lundin will increase its share of the exploration budget that goes to ILX compared to 2020, but stopped short of providing a percentage. It is already well known that Equinor is focused on ILX , and what several speakers referred to High Value Barrels.
It is equally important to learn what the smaller Norwegian companies are doing. The list of speakers includes Horizon Energy, Cool Energy, DNO, Petrolia NOCO, OKEA, Lime Petroleum, Concedo, Longboat Energy and Wellesley. Most of these present today.
Horisont Energi emphasized that the company does not engage in upstream activities, but instead focuses on the production of ammonia with gas from the Barents Sea (Melkøya), as well as CCS (carbon capture and storage). The ammonia plans include a factory on Markoppneset in Repparfjord.
In the program we also find European companies such as PGNiG, OMV, Wintershall Dea and Neptune Energy.
Yesterday, Wintershall Dea was able to reveal that the company has not had any success with its frontier wells in recent times (Marisko, Toutatis). Therefore, it is no longer able to convince management in Germany of drilling these prospects, especially not in the Barents Sea. Therefore, it goes without saying that ILX is the answer to what the company will do in the years ahead.
Neptune Energy expressed exactly the same thing. The Barents Sea is out. Frontier search is out. The future is ILX.
Over the two days, the approximately 130 conference participants will gain a broader insight into short- and long-term exploration on the Norwegian shelf, and about how the companies build their portfolios to maximize reserves, and position themselves to respond to pressure from society.
NJÅL HAGEN
