Wintershall Norge AS is pleased to announce that the company has been awarded new acreage in the 24th licensing round on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy yesterday announced the award of 12 licenses to 11 companies. Three licenses were offered in the Norwegian Sea and nine in the Barents Sea. “We are very pleased to be acknowledged as a partner in the license we have had as our main priority in this round. The area is among the most interesting parts of the shelf and is of considerable interest to us,” says Guy Oakes, Exploration Manager at Wintershall Norge. Wintershall has been awarded a 20 percent share in license PL 964, where Aker BP will be the operator (40%) and the other partners are DEA (15%) and Petoro (25%). The license is located close to the prospect Gråspett in license 721, where Wintershall is also a partner, and which is planned to be drilled later this year.

Promising area

According to analyses by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) the Barents Sea holds the largest undiscovered resource potential on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. “The Barents is large and still has many unexplored areas. Wintershall sees great potential and we are hopeful that we will see larger discoveries in this area soon,” says Oakes. The 24th license round was announced on 21 June 2017 and encompassed 102 blocks. Out of these, all nine blocks in the Norwegian Sea and 38 blocks in the Barents Sea were awarded.

About Wintershall Norge AS

Wintershall Norge AS is one of the largest oil and gas producers in Norway with a daily production of around 100,000 barrels of oil equivalents. The company has an ownership in around 50 licenses on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, whereof over half as operator. In 2017, the production started on the Maria field, which was Wintershall’s first own-operated development on shelf. The next planned development project is Nova (previously Skarfjell). The company is also the operator of the producing fields Brage and Vega. Wintershall Norge AS has around 500 employees and is a part of Wintershall Holding GmbH.

About Wintershall Holding GmbH

Wintershall Holding GmbH, based in Kassel, Germany, is a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF in Ludwigshafen. The company has been active in the extraction of natural resources for 120 years, and in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas for over 85 years. Wintershall focuses on selected core regions where the company has built up a high level of regional and technological expertise. These are Europe, Russia, North Africa, South America, and increasingly the Middle East region. The company wants to expand its business further with exploration and production, selected partnerships, innovation and technological competence. Wintershall employs about 2,000 staff worldwide from 50 nations and is now Germany’s largest, internationally active crude oil and natural gas producer.