Wintershall Dea has farmed out its 30% stake in the Shrek licenses (PL838/838B) in the Norwegian Sea to Lime Petroleum.
Wintershall Dea said on Tuesday that the licenses, located near the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea, come from DEA Norge’s legacy portfolio, and the divestment is part of an ongoing asset management process for the merged Wintershall Dea company.
“Having started to operate as one company, the farm down in Shrek is part of a global portfolio and budget optimization that helps to reduce our high level of exploration expenditure in 2019,” said Roy Davies , Head of Exploration in Norway.
In the event of a commercial discovery in the Shrek well – due to be drilled later this year – the development solution will be a tie-back to the Skarv field where Wintershall Dea is the second largest owner. In this way, the company will still benefit from a discovery in Shrek even after exiting the license.
Wintershall Dea added it expects to participate in a further five exploration wells in Norway before the end of 2019.
Polish oil company PGNiG is the operator of the license with a 40% share and Aker BP is another partner with a 30% interest.
PGNiG plans to start drilling the Shrek well between September 1 and November 30, 2019, following the completion of the drilling of the production wells at Aker BP-operated Skogul and Ærfugl fields. The well will be drilled using the Odfjell Deepsea-owned Nordkapp semi-submersible drilling rig.