OMV Slashes Estimates for Hades Find off Norway
Austria's OMV has significantly downgraded its resource estimate for the 2018 Hades gas and condensate discovery off Norway after drilling an appraisal well, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on July 28.
The company previously estimated Hades' size at between 3 and 23mn m3 of recoverable oil equivalent, or 19-145mn barrels of oil equivalent. But it now believes the find is only 2-7mn m3 in size, the NPD said.
The revision comes after OMV completed an appraisal well aimed at delimiting the Norwegian Sea discovery towards the southwest. The well, drilled 240 km northwest of Kristiansund, encountered a eight-metre gas column in the Lange formation, with sandstone layers totalling 83 metres with poor to moderate reservoir properties.
Hades is situated in licence 644, which OMV operates with a 30% stake. Equinor, DNO and Spirit Energy have shares of 40%, 20% and 10%. The deposit is next to another OMV discovery called Iris, and the Austrian firm's plan had been to develop the pair jointly.
Iris, also found in 2018, was hailed as Norway's largest discovery that year. But OMV lowered its mid-point estimate for its size from 85mn to 50mn boe in October, after drilling an appraisal well.