Dea to File Dvalin Plan
Monday 3 October 2016
Dea is set to submit to the authorities on Monday its delayed plan for development and operation of the Dvalin gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea, setting the stage for subsequent awards on the subsea tieback project.
The scheduled filing will mark only the third PDO to be handed over to the Petroleum & Energy Ministry so far this year - after Statoil recently submitted plans to develop its Utgard and Byrding finds - though Dvalin will be the biggest of the three field projects.
The German operator is looking to exploit recoverable resources of 18.5 million cubic metres at the field - formerly named Zidane - as a tieback to the Statoil-operated Heidrun platform under the Nkr10 billion ($1.2 billion) project that is targeted for start-up in the second half of 2020.
Project director Lars Moe recently stated that Dea was looking to award contracts for the subsea equipment, as well as pipelines and installation, while Statoil would hand out a contract for topsides modification on Heidrun.
Dea, owned by Russia's LetterOne group, also expects to award the drilling contract for Dvalin in mid-2017, with production drilling due to start in the third quarter of 2019.
Development sanction of Dvalin has been stalled for a few years due to an apparent rift among partners over its commercial viability amid low commodity prices, as well as an earlier tariff dispute with the Heidrun partners that is now resolved.
Dea holds a 40% operating stake in production licence 435 that hosts the discovery, with partners Edison, OMV and Maersk Oil each on 20%, though OMV was recently reported to have sold its stake to state holding company Petoro.
Meanwhile, further fields on the radar screen for PDO submission this year include Statoil-operated Trestakk - also in the Norwegian Sea - and Centrica’s Oda (ex-Butch) in the North Sea.
Newcomer Okea is also looking to submit a redevelopment plan for the Yme field in the North Sea by year-end, subject to a pending takeover of operatorship from Repsol.