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Northern Petroleum operations |
Overview
There has been an increase to 60.5 million barrels of oil equivalent of
independently reported proven plus probable reserves. This is as a result of
re-evaluation work on the interest in five fields in The Netherlands acquired
from NAM, the award of the Papekop Production Licence and work by ECL
to re-examine the Weald Basin assets to reflect a $40/bbl oil price.
The main objective has been to create a viable presence in The Netherlands
that in the near future will provide production income more than sufficient
to fund a significant onshore exploration programme in this lower risk
proven oil and gas province. The first new activity will be the drilling of
Steenwijk-1 currently scheduled for October 2006.
Also almost complete is the building of a major presence in Italy of 11,432 km²,
having under our management the second largest exploration area after
ENI/Agip, based upon a strategy of revisiting past offshore discoveries and
plays in the light of new technical capabilities and new economics. This is
the implementation of a decision made some years ago to build on the
greater potential of Italy rather than in the declining UK Sector of the North
Sea and also to avoid the risks of the UK Government’s multiple fiscal and
licensing changes.
In the UK we have continued in the onshore South of England,
concentrating on the appraisal of discoveries and exploration in the more
mature Weald Basin following last year’s unsuccessful campaign in the
Wessex Basin. Avington-3 (5%) is soon to be tested and, as Operator, we are
planning the drilling of two wells with a 50% interest.
Netherlands
United Kingdom
Italy
Guyane
Spain
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