Norway determined to “crack the code”- Plans to drill about 60 wells on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in 2011 as compared to 40 in 2010!!!

Whilst the number of wells drilled on the NCS decreased last year to 40 wells compared to 65 exploration wells in 2009, 2011 is set to match the record year of 2009. About 60 wells have been scheduled so far.

• Only one exploration well was drilled in the Barents sea in 2011.
• The CEO of state-run producer Statoil , Helge Lund, told Bloomberg that the oil industry has been unable to 'crack the code' of the Barents Sea. However, a company spokesperson said earlier in the week that Statoil 'still believes' in the Barents Sea, underscoring its importance to the plans of Norway's upstream players.
• About 32 wildcat wells were completed by the end of 2010, out of which 16 wells discovered hydrocarbons in them.

• So far in 2011, six wells have been drilled offshore Norway: two each in the North, Barents and Norwegian seas. All six have failed to yield hydrocarbons. This is the largest number of dusters to start a calendar year in Norway's drilling history since 1966, according to Norwegian government data.
• Norway estimates the Norwegian Sea holds 455 billion cubic meters in undiscovered gas and the Barents Sea 520 billion cubic meters. Total undiscovered gas resources may be 1.26 trillion cubic meters, the directorate said in January, down from an estimate of 1.82 trillion cubic meters last year. The country had proven gas reserves of 2 trillion cubic meters in 2009.
• The lack of discoveries is challenging targets to maintain production offshore Norway and imperiling the development of a second gas hub in the Norwegian Sea.
• Statoil missed production targets last year and has said a goal of keeping output in Norway at current levels until 2020 is “ambitious.”
• Producers operating off Norway are investing a record amount in exploration and production this year to make bigger discoveries and prolong output from existing fields.
• Investments are estimated to climb 13 percent to 141.1 billion kroner ($25 billion) driven by an 11 percent increase in spending on exploration.

Planned exploration wells on NCS 2011 sorted by operating company:

    

Companies which have not planned any wells as operators in 2011:

BP, Chevron, Dana Petroleum, Lotos, VNG, North Energy, Front Exploration, Spring Energy, Hess, Bridge Energy, Talisman Energy, Repsol, Shell and ExxonMobil.

For further information on Derrick Petroleum Exploration Database, please visit:
http://www.derrickpetroleum.com/explorationdatabaase.html