Neptune to double gas output from North Sea field to meet Europe’s demand

Oil and gas company Neptune Energy and its partners have announced gas production will be doubled from the Duva field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, supporting increased supplies to the UK and Europe amid growing energy security concerns.

As informed by Neptune on Friday, the partnership has worked closely with the Norwegian authorities to identify measures to help meet gas demand in Europe. This will enable an increase in gas production from the Duva field by 6,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), from the first half of April.

Duva is a subsea installation with three oil producers and one gas producer tied back to the Neptune Energy-operated Gjøa semi-submersible platform. The gas is transported by pipeline to the UK’s St Fergus gas terminal.

Neptune Energy’s Managing Director in Norway, Odin Estensen, said: “We are pleased that we, together with our partners and in cooperation with Norwegian authorities, will be able to supply additional and much-needed volumes of gas, enough to heat a further 350,000 UK homes per day.”

Duva’s overall production currently stands at 30 kboepd, of which 6,500 boepd is natural gas. Under the newly-agreed measures, daily gas production will double to 13 kboepd for an initial 4-8 months.

Around 70 per cent of Neptune Energy’s Norwegian production is gas, and the company is investigating opportunities to ramp up gas production from other fields within its portfolio.

Electrified with hydropower from shore, CO2 emissions per boe on the Gjøa platform in the North Sea are less than half the average on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, according to Neptune. Duva licence partners include Neptune Energy (30 per cent and operator), INPEX Idemitsu (30 per cent), PGNiG Upstream Norway (30 per cent) and Sval Energi (10 per cent).

The update on Duva field production comes as Europe seeks to become less dependent on Russian oil and gas by securing them from other sources. Several weeks ago, Norway’s Equinor and the country’s government worked out a plan to maintain high gas exports to Europe and meet the demand amid supply concerns exacerbated by the Ukrainian crisis.

Under the plan, Equinor will increase the gas production from three of its fields, Oseberg, Troll, and Heidrun.

In an effort to ensure and strengthen European energy security, reduce reliance on Russian fossil fuels, and reduce Europe’s overall reliance on gas, the EU in late March agreed with the U.S. to supply 15 billion cubic meters of LNG to the EU this year.

While the U.S. banned Russian oil, coal, and LNG imports back in early March, the EU is still weighing additional sanctions related to the banning of Russian oil imports.

Meanwhile, the UK has developed its energy security strategy, committing to support oil and gas projects in the North Sea and speed up the deployment of renewable energy sources.