Wellesley Petroleum’s Carmen discovery in Norway has exceeded pre-drill expectations, Palzor Shenga, Rystad Energy’s vice president of Upstream Research and Analysis, told Rigzone.
Shenga, who described the find as “significant”, stressed that the discovery has estimated recoverable reserves of around 175 million barrels of oil equivalent. Rystad’s vice president said Carmen has been the largest in Western Europe since 2013 and “presents an opportunity for development using the existing infrastructure.”
“Norway’s exploration efforts continue to deliver impressive results, with the Carmen find increasing its discovered volumes by 2023 to more than 400 million barrels of oil equivalent,” Shenga told Rigzone.
“This is only the fifth instance that has occurred in the last ten years. Norway’s cumulative discovered volume since 2013 is around four billion barrels of oil equivalent, significantly outpacing neighboring Western European countries,” Shenga added.
“This year has the potential to be Norway’s best since 2013, surpassing previous records,” continued Rystad’s vice president.
Also commenting on the discovery, Greg Roddick, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie, highlighted to Rigzone that Carmen “could be the largest discovery offshore Norway and the wider North Sea since Wisting in 2013”.
“The find was made in Norway’s prolific Troll-Fram area, which has now yielded nine discoveries since 2019,” Roddick said.
“The addition of Carmen would increase discovered resource estimates in the area from 325 million barrels of oil equivalent to about 500 million barrels of oil equivalent. Resources are certain to grow with up to 10 exploration wells to be drilled over the next 18 months,” he added.
“Equinor is already evaluating two possible coordinated developments of a large area around Carmen: Fram Sør and Ringvei Vest. The projects would involve linking the fields via subsea infrastructure and connecting to its Troll facilities in the south” , it continued.
Roddick also told Rigzone that there could be alternative development options for Carmen “given the size and gas content.” The Wood Mackenzie analyst noted that this latest discovery could boost returns for Wellesley Petroleum investors following its recent asset sale to Equinor.
“If it is commercial, we would expect the company to monetize its stake in the future – Equinor would be the most obvious buyer,” Roddick said.
“Carmen will almost double DNO’s economically viable resources and also underlines the potential for major discoveries in Norway following record investment as a result of the recent tax package,” he added.
Earlier this week, DNO ASA announced a “significant” discovery of gas and condensates at the Carmen prospect in the Norwegian North Sea license PL1148.
Preliminary evaluation of the complete data, including core and fluid samples, acquired from the discovery well and extended follow-up indicates gross recoverable resources in the range of 120 million to 230 million barrels of oil equivalent on a P90-P10, DNO said in a statement posted on its site. At 175 million barrels of oil equivalent, the midpoint of that range, Carmen ranks as the largest discovery on the Norwegian continental shelf since 2013, the company said in the statement.
In a statement posted on its website in March, Wellesley Petroleum announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell a package of license interests in the Norwegian Continental Shelf to Equinor Energy AS.
In a company statement at the time, Wellesley CEO Chris Elliott said: “This transaction between Wellesley and Equinor is a natural outgrowth of the highly productive cooperation between our two companies in the exploration phase of the assets that are transferred”.
“The deal provides Equinor with more scale in high-quality operated development projects with excellent ESG characteristics, while allowing Wellesley to crystallize value and refocus the portfolio towards our core exploration acreage,” added.
To contact the author, please send an email andreas.exarcheas@rigzone.com
