TotalEnergies and Aker BP are seeking an independent review of their stakes in Equinor's Johan Sverdrup oilfield with a goal of boosting their holdings in the North Sea's largest producing field, Aker BP said on Wednesday.
Built across several offshore oil and gas licences, Sverdrup is currently owned 42.63% by its operator Equinor, while Aker BP holds 31.57%, Norwegian state-owned oil firm Petoro 17.36% and France's TotalEnergies the remaining 8.44%.
The owners of the field, which began producing oil in 2019, have the right to seek reviews of their stakes based on production and reservoir data.
"TotalEnergies used an option to call for a redetermination process," Aker BP CEO Karl Johnny Hersvik told reporters, adding that his company supported the action.
"I'm not going to speculate on the results of such a process, but obviously we wouldn't have done that if we didn't expect a positive change," Hersvik said.
Sverdrup is expected to produce around 720,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day on average in 2025, close to its level in 2023-2024, Equinor said last week.
Equinor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reuters - Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik and Christian Schmollinger)