Det Norske to take over Frigg Gamma Delta

Norwegian independent Det Norske has agreed to buy Centrica Resources Norge's operated stakes in the Frigg Gamma Delta and Rind discoveries in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. 

Subject to the deal being agreed by regulatory authorities, Det Norske will cover the expenses of the licenses covering the discoveries with effective date of 1 January 2016.

The move comes as Centrica Resources Norge's parent company Centrica Group, an integrated energy company with power and distribution businesses, as well as upstream, said it had reduced staffing by some 800 in the first three months of the year and the total would be 3000 in 2016. It did not say which areas of the business the reductions are from. Centrica' says it expects to invest about £500 million in its exploration and production business this year.

The portfolio Det Norske has agreed to buy consists of 30% ownership in licenses PL 442, PL 026B and PL 026, including the operatorship in Frigg Gamma Delta.

Frigg Gamma Delta is an oil and gas field consisting of the two reservoirs Frigg Gamma and Delta, which were found in 1986 and 2009 respectively. 

Several development options have been considered for the field. Four concepts were due to be further considered during the Impact Assessment process, according to an impact assessment proposal document drawn up by Centrica from last year. 

The concepts were:

• a combination of wellhead and subsea installation tied to a third party field
• a seabed installation connected to a third party field
• an independent development solution in the form of a production platform with a fixed jacket and a pipeline to transport the oil on-shore or to a local storage vessels
• a floating production and storage vessel

It is estimated that the field contains 100 MMbbl boe. The plan at the time was to drill nine production wells and two wells for injection of produced water and gas on the field. Two solutions for power generation would be further considered during the environmental impact assessment process; power from shore and the import of gas for local power generation on the field. 

Det Norske recently bought Premier Oil's Vette field (formerly known as Bream), which was under consideration as a floating production development. However, Det Norske has been considering shelving the project after "weak prices and lower potential production" challenged the economics of the project forcing its closure, according to an IEA report. 

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