PGNiG Upstream Norway has acquired shares in 12 concessions on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. In one of them, the company from the ORLEN Group will have the status of an operator. The shares were awarded as part of the annual concession round organized by the Norwegian Ministry of Energy. As a result of its resolution, the number of PGNiG Upstream Norway concessions will increase to 104.
“The results of the last concession round on the Norwegian Continental Shelf confirm the strong position of the ORLEN Group on the local market. This is the highest number of concessions that PGNiG Upstream Norway has acquired as part of this procedure. The development of our Norwegian asset portfolio is essential for the realization of the Group’s business objectives, but also from the point of view of ensuring energy security for our customers,” says Daniel Obajtek, President of ORLEN’s Management Board.
In the last concession round Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2023, PGNiG Usptream Norway (PUN) won a total of 12 concessions. The company applied by itself for ten of them, and for the two remaining ones were submitted by KUFPEC Norway, which was subsequently taken over by PUN on January 5, 2024.
As part of APA 2023, the Norwegian government allocated shares in 62 concessions, which means that PUN has acquired shares in as much as 1/5 of all awarded concessions. The company – even before the takeover of KUFPEC Norway – applied for 10 concessions and all its applications were considered positively. This attests to the high quality of the technical and geological documentation prepared by PUN.
The concessions granted to PUN are located near areas where the company is already operating. This will facilitate and reduce the cost of potential development of these concessions, if hydrocarbon resources are found there. Six out of the newly acquired concessions are located in the North Sea, three of which are in the vicinity of the Yggdrasil area and two near the Fenris deposit. PUN is currently developing Fenris and Yggdrasil with its concession partners, and their combined recoverable resources attributable to the ORLEN Group company amount to approximately 75 million barrels of oil equivalent, including 5 billion cubic metres of gas. Extraction is planned to begin in 2027.
Also located in the North Sea are two concessions acquired by PUN as a result of the acquisition of KUFPEC Norway. The new assets are located near the Sleipner area, which is already being exploited by the ORLEN Group.
The remaining four concessions are located in the Norwegian Sea. In one of them, PL1220, PUN has been granted operator status, which means that the company will be guiding the work related to the search for hydrocarbons and their potential exploitation. The concession is located near the already producing Ormen Lange field, in which the company has a stake. The next three concessions are located near the Skarv area, which is PUN’s extraction center on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
