Poland’s PGNiG Expands Norwegian Portfolio
PGNiG has agreed to buy a 22.2% stake in two licences in the King Lear field in the North Sea, the Polish state-controlled gas utility announced June 7.
The stake is being sold by Total. The Polish company says the PL146 and PL333 licences could see it reap up to 0.25bn m3/yr once production starts. The BP-operated King Lear field contains recoverable resources of98.6mn boe, including 9.2bn m3 of natural gas, and is scheduled to launch in 2025. The price paid for the asset was not revealed.
Norway’s Equinor sold its 77.8% stake in King Lear to BP last year. At the same time, PGNiG bought it out of the nearby Tommeliten discovery, which should launch production in 2024. Partners on the project are operator ConocoPhilips (28.26%), Total (20.23%) and Eni (9.13%).
Poland is racing to secure alternative supplies ahead of the 2022 expiry of its long-term contract with Russia’s Gazprom. Officials have said they hope to dispense with Russian supplies entirely. Alongside US and Qatari LNG, Warsaw plans to import significant volumes of gas from teh North Sea via the Baltic Pipe project.
“King Lear is one of the largest undeveloped discoveries in the North Sea. This is another purchase PGNiG has had recently on the Norwegian continental shelf. This way, we develop our upstream operations in Norway consistent with the strategy of PGNiG Group. The gas produced from this field will be directed to Poland by the future Baltic Pipe gas pipeline,” commented PGNiG chairman Piotr Wozniak.
Once the latest deal is finalised, PGNiG will hold shares in 25 licenses on the Norwegian continental shelf, on four of which it acts as operator.
Norwegian Aerfugl on track
PGNiG's Aerfugl field, also in Norway, is due start production on time in June 2020, it said June 4. Operator Aker BP estimates that the development phase 1 is 40% complete. As for the Phase 2 PGNiG Upstream Norway and its license partners decided to enter define phase with aim of entering execution stage in November 2019.
"The Aerfugl development plan is on track. This is important because the launch of production from the field will translate into a significant increase in our gas output in Norway, which we want to transmit to Poland via the Baltic Pipe from Q4 2022," said PGNiG Piotr Wozniak. At peak, PGNiG will produce from the field an estimated amount of about 0.5bn m³/yr.