– Our strategy is to explore in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea in prospects close to infrastructure. And we prefer gas, said Chris Dart, Exploration Manager at PGNiG at the NCS Exploration Strategy 2019 conference in Stavanger on November 20th.
While most E&P companies are looking for oil, PGNiG concentrates their efforts on gas. At least for the time being.
The reason is the company’s ongoing Baltic Pipe Project which soon will deliver gas from the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) to Central Europe.
The estimated startup date is October 2022, and as of today, PGNiG is unable to supply enough gas to reach full pipeline capacity.
Therefore, according to Dart, more acquisitions may be in the pipeline to get closer to the desired production levels of 2,5 bcm gas per year.
In the longer term, explorational success is believed to keep the flow in the pipeline going.
– In 2020, we will drill one well together with ConocoPhillips, and looking further out, our goal is about three exploration wells per year on the NCS.
PGNiG recently made a discovery in the Shrek prospect, the company’s first operated exploration well on the NCS.
While the volumes were on the low side (19-38 million oil equivalents recoverable), the oil-with-a- gas-cap discovery is considered valuable as it can be tied to the nearby Skarv field.
