A review of resources on the Norwegian Continental Shelf shows that the current recoverable volume of oil in fields and discoveries exceeds the estimated figure in 2005.
Further, it presume that more oil remains to be discovered, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s (NPD’s) review of the resource base between 2005 and 2014.
However, the figure is not as high as the NPD had hoped it would be. The NPD’s goal from 2005 is to achieve an oil reserve growth of 800 MM square cubic meters, or 5000 MMbbl, over 10 years.
It says, according to the latest figures, the reserve growth has been less than hoped for, but it would have been reached if the development plan for Johan Sverdrup had been submitted before the end of 2014.
“A lot of good work has been done to increase the resources on the Norwegian shelf, and there has been substantial resource growth in many fields,” says Kirsti Veggeland, Assistant Director General for shelf analysis in the NPD.
“The most important reasons for this are more wells, extended field lifetimes and improved knowledge. Decisions were also made to develop new deposits in the fields over the ten-year period.”
In addition to producing fields, the NPD has reviewed 62 discoveries for which development decisions had not been made in 2005. Over the course of this 10-year period, 28 of them have been developed, and their oil reserves have nearly doubled. This is due to new information, better reservoir understanding and optimization of development solutions and drainage strategies.
Discoveries made after 2004 have also led to development decisions for 13 new fields, which have contributed an overall resource growth totaling 80 MM standard cubic meters (503 MMbbl) of oil. The Edvard Grieg, Ivar Aasen and Knarr fields account for more than 75% of this volume.
“The NPD had hoped that improved recovery measures would account for a greater share of the growth in oil reserves. However, many new opportunities to improve recovery have been identified, and the potential is greater in 2015 than it was 10 years ago,” says Veggeland.