PGNiG’s subsidiary PGNiG Upstream Norway was one of the 30 oil companies operating in Norway awarded new acreage this year. The licences were awarded to applicants who submitted licence applications that were the best in terms of geological and technical understanding. Two of the new licences (PL 1123 and PL 1124) are located near the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea, whereas the PL 1088 and PL 146B licences lie in close proximity to the King Lear field in the North Sea.

‘We are consistently expanding our holdings on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. We want as much own gas as possible to be fed into the Baltic Pipe in the future. In this licensing round, we applied for licences in locations that would enable us to step up own production – two of them lie close to the Skarv field, our major producing asset, and the other two are located in close proximity to King Lear, which is a gas field in development. This is important for two reasons. Firstly, areas located in close proximity to our existing fields may hold recoverable resources with development potential. Secondly, the proximity of producing fields and existing infrastructure would lower production costs of a potential new discovery,’ said Paweł Majewski, President of the PGNiG Management Board. ‘According to our estimates, our natural gas production in Norway may reach approximately 0.9 bcm this year. After 2022, natural gas produced and purchased in Norway will account for a significant proportion of the gas used by businesses and households in Poland,’ Mr Majewski added.

The operator of the two new licences in the North Sea is Aker BP, with a 77.8% interest in each of them. PGNiG Upstream Norway is a partner on the licences, holding a 22.2% interest in each of them. The company has also acquired a 30% interest in the PL 1123 licence in the Norwegian Sea, with Aker BP and ConocoPhillips (operator) as the other partners. It holds an 11.9175% interest in PL 1124, with the other partners being Aker BP (operator), Equinor and Wintershall DEA.

The rapid pace of acquisitions over the past four years has increased the PGNiG Group’s oil and gas reserves on the Norwegian Continental Shelf from approximately 80 mmboe to 208 mmboe at the end of 2020.In 2020, PGNiG Upstream Norway discovered gas in the Warka prospect. Preliminary estimates put the recoverable reserves of the new discovery at between 8 bcm and 30 bcm of natural gas and condensate. PGNiG Upstream Norway is already producing crude oil and natural gas from nine fields: Skarv, Morvin, Vale, Vilje, Gina Krog, Skogul and Ærfugl, Kvitebjørn and Valemon, while development and assessment work is under way on five more deposits: Duva, Tommeliten Alpha, King Lear, Ærfugl Outer and Shrek.

The official announcement of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD): https://www.npd.no/en/facts/news/general-news/2021/APA-2020-30-companies-offered-ownership-interests/