Major new oil discovery in the North Sea changes production prospects
Norway's Aker BP has made a much larger-than-expected oil discovery in the Yggdrasil area of the North Sea, the energy company said on Thursday.
Preliminary estimates indicate a gross recoverable volume of 40 million to 90 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), much higher than the company's previous projections of between 18 and 45 million boe.
Here is the location of the field off the coast of Norway. 
The discovery will significantly increase Aker BP's resource base for the Yggdrasil development, which was previously estimated at 650 million boe gross. The oil discovery is within production licenses 873 and 442: in license 873, with Equinor ASA and PGNiG Upstream Norway as partners. The development and operations plan (PDO) for this project was submitted to the Norwegian authorities in December 2022, with production starting in 2027.
The North Sea is home to significant known reserves of oil and gas. Known reserves of oil and gas in the North Sea amounted to 4.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) at the end of 2020, according to a report by the Oil and Gas Authority.
According to the Oil and Gas Authority's Vision 2035, taking into account future exploration, 14.9 billion BOE could potentially be extracted by 2035. The figures in Vision 2035 are based on the assumption of a $60 a barrel of oil and 55 pence per thermal unit of gas. With current oil prices, it should be economical to continue producing in the North Sea according to estimates by the Oil and Gas Authority. The industry managed to significantly reduce drilling costs after the 2014 oil crash.
The British government is considering approving a giant new oil and gas field in the North Sea, despite warnings from climate scientists and energy economists that the world cannot afford to develop new fossil fuel projects. The Rosebank field has the potential to produce 500 million barrels of oil over its lifetime. However, the rich royalties for extraction are coveted by governments and the blocking of extractions only in Europe is, frankly, useless.
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The article New major oil discovery in the North Sea changes production prospects comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/nuova-grande-scoperta-petrolifera-nel-mare-del-nord-cambia-le-prospettive-di-produzione/ on Thu, 25 May 2023 18:41:52 +0000.