Germany’s largest oil and gas producer, Wintershall, could boast five oil discoveries in the North Sea during just the past year when it made a presentation at the Offshore Northern Seas ONS 2010 conference in Stavanger on Thursday. It recently struck North Sea oil again, in the British sector.
Wintershall claims it’s becoming one of the leading operators on the Norwegian continental shelf. “The expansion of our activities in our core region North Sea, especially on the Norwegian continental shelf, is making good progress,” said Martin Bachmann, who heads exploration and production for Wintershall.
After finding oil at the Grosbeak and Maria wells on the Norwegian shelf, it now has struck oil at its third operated well, Blakeney, around 150 kilometers east of Aberdeen. Winterhall holds a 75 percent stake in the discovery, with Sterling Resources of Canada holding the other 25 percent. The discovery is expected to yield up to 100 million barrels of oil.
The Maria discovery about 200 kilometers off Trondheim is one of the largest oil discoveries in Norwegian territory so far this year. Wintershall, a subsidiary of BASF, expects to sink more wells on the Norwegian continental shelf this year and “continue to invest heavily” in the North Sea.
“In Norway, our investments are focused on the entire cycle from exploration to production,” Bachmann said. “This is certainly not a strategy practiced by all international E&P (exploration and production) companies in Norway these days. We believe in the potential on the Norwegian continental shelf.”
Wintershall is one of the largest license holders in Norway, with around 40 at present.
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