Supermajors Win Big in UK’s 33rd Oil and Gas Round
Seventeen companies have been offered a total of 24 licenses in the second round of the North Sea Transition Authority’s (NSTA) 33rd oil and gas licensing round. Of the 17 companies, several supermajors including Equinor, BP, Shell, and TotalEnergies secured licenses for 74 blocks and part-blocks in the Central North Sea, Northern North Sea, and West of Shetland areas. Remaining blocks in the Southern North Sea and East Irish Sea will be offered when environmental evaluations are finalized by the UK Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning.
These awards follow the 27 licenses offered in the first allocation made in October 2023 which consisted of 931 blocks and part-blocks available in the same locations. The application window closed in January 2023 with 115 bids coming in from 76 companies.
NSTA analysis reports the average time between licensing and first production is 5 years.
Hercules Continues Namibia Exploration
Offshore Namibia continues to be the site of more exploration activity as Portuguese oil and gas company Galp announced the relocation of the Hercules rig, managed by Odfjell Drilling, to the Mopane-2X well location. The announcement came shortly after the company announced the discovery of a significant column of light oil in reservoir-bearing sands of high quality at the Mopane‑1X well. Both wells are part of license PEL83 in the Upper Orange Basin with drilling depths up to 2550 m.
Galp is the operator with 80% interest, along with the National Petroleum Company of Namibia (10%), and Custos (10%).
New Production Licenses Awarded on Norwegian Continental Shelf
The Norwegian Ministry of Energy awarded 62 new production licenses on the Norwegian Continental Shelf to 24 companies in the Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2023 licensing round. Sixty-two licenses were offered including 29 in the North Sea, 25 in the Norwegian Sea, and 8 in the Barents Sea. Companies that received licenses include Aker BP ASA, ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS, Harbour Energy Norge AS, OMV (Norge) AS, and Wintershall Dea Norge AS.
Equinor received the most licenses with 39 new production licenses throughout the Norwegian Continental Shelf including 18 in the North Sea, 13 in the Norwegian Sea, and 8 in the Barents Sea. The company reported that 80% of the licenses are in areas near existing infrastructure and in known geology, and 20% are considered as options based on the company’s offshore geology knowledge.
Equinor is the operator of 14 of the awarded licenses and a partner in 25.
TotalEnergies Acquires Additional Interest in Namibia
TotalEnergies will increase its presence in Namibia as the company announced the acquisition of an additional 10.5% participating interest in block 2913B and an additional 9.39% participating interest in block 2912 from Impact Oil and Gas Namibia. Both blocks are within the northern part of the Orange Basin, where TotalEnergies’ Venus discovery was made in February 2022.
Impact will retain a 9.5% interest in both blocks, with TotalEnergies, operator, owning a total of 45.25% interest in block 2913B containing the Venus discovery, and a 42.5% interest in block 2912. Impact will receive a $99 million closing payment for the transaction.
Shell Secures Valaris 123 for Exploration
Shell announced the signing of a drilling contract with Valaris 123 for the Selene exploration well and the Pensacola appraisal well in the North Sea. Shell partnered with Deltic Energy on the P2436 and P2252 licenses with the contract anticipated to begin in June 2024. The pair is expected to be drilled as a two-well sequence. Shell previously made a gas discovery at the Pensacola gas prospect in the Southern North Sea in 2023.
Shell is the operator and holds a 65% interest with Deltic Energy (30%) and ONE-Dyas (5%).
TotalEnergies Takes Control in Malaysia
TotalEnergies signed an agreement with OMV to acquire its 50% interest in Malaysian independent gas producer and operator SapuraOMV Upstream Sdn (SapuraOMV). The agreement is valued at $903 million, including the transfer of a $350 million loan granted by OMV to SapuraOMV. The transaction is expected to close at the end of Q2 2024. SapuraOMV’s assets include a 40% and 30% operating interest in blocks SK408 and SK310, respectively, which are both located offshore Sarawak in Malaysia, as well as exploration interests in Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. Last year, the company’s operated production was about 500 MMcf/D of natural gas and 7,000 B/D of condensates.
Akpo West Starts Production
TotalEnergies and partners announced the start of production from the Akpo West field on the PML2 license in deepwater OML 130 block, located 135 km offshore Nigeria. This production is the latest from FPSO Akpo which started up in 2009 and produced 124,000 BOE/D in 2023. Akpo West is expected to contribute an additional 14,000 B/D of condensates, to be followed by up to 4 million m3 of gas per day by 2028.
TotalEnergies is the operator with a 24% interest, along with CNOOC (45%), Sapetro (15%), and Prime 130 (16%).
