Pandion Energy acquires the operations of ONE-Dyas in Norway with an outlook to more than double daily production

The Nova field is expected to start production in the second half of 2022. The field, located in the northern part of the North Sea, is being developed with two subsea templates tied back to the existing Gjøa platform. Nova (previously Skarfjell) was discovered in 2012 and the plan for development and operation (PDO) was approved in 2018. The use of existing infrastructure enables effective extraction of the resources and Nova will be sustainably operated with hydro power from shore through Gjøa.

CEO of Pandion Energy, Jan Christian Ellefsen stated the following:

This transaction represents a new leap in the Pandion story and secures the foundation for further growth. Our asset base is strengthened and, with Nova on stream, our daily production will more than double.

“During the first five years, Pandion Energy has earned its reputation as a trusted partner in exploration and field development on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). ONE-Dyas Norge fits well with our existing portfolio and organisation and will strengthen our position as an active, full-cycle partner driving value in high-quality assets on the NCS.”

Through its 10 percent ownership in the Valhall and Hod fields, Pandion Energy currently produces over 5,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, set to increase further as the new Hod B platform comes on stream in 2022. The Valhall area has been fully electrified from shore since 2013. The combined Valhall and Nova production will, in line with Pandion Energy’s Net Zero Carbon strategy, have among the lowest CO2 intensity levels on the NCS.

Jan Christian Ellefsen further points out that Pandion Energy has long indicated plans for further expansion on the Norwegian Continental Shelf:

“M&A activity on the NCS was slow during the first half of 2021, but more opportunities started to occur as we approached 2022. We are still actively searching for and evaluating additional opportunities to further grow our portfolio.”

The transaction is subject to customary conditions for completion, including but not limited to approval by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

 

For more information on ONE-Dyas Norge AS, see: https://onedyas.no/

For more information on Nova, see: https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/facts/field/nova/

Pandion Energy awarded three APA licenses

The APA award was announced by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy on Tuesday 18 January. For more information about the APA 2021 Licensing Round see Ministry of Petroleum and Energy’s website.

Pandion Energy has been awarded the following licenses:

License PL 1139 in block 15/6 is located in the South Viking Graben area in the Norwegian Sea.  Pandion Energy has been offered a 20 percent participating interest in PL 1139.

License PL 1166 in blocks 6507/8 and 9 is located in the Haltenbanken area of the Norwegian sea and is contiguous to PL 891 acquired by Pandion Energy in 2019. The PL 1166 area is planned to be matured alongside PL 891 where the partnership is currently preparing to drill the first appraisal well on the Slagugle discovery made in 2020. Pandion Energy has been offered a 30 percent participating interest in PL 1166.

License PL 263 G is additional acreage to PL 263 D/E/F located in the Norwegian Sea. The PL263 D/E/F license announced a gas discovery in exploration well 6407/1-8 S in November 2020. Pandion Energy holds a 20 percent interest in the license.

New important milestone for the Valhall area

First production from the development is planned in 2027. This will also mean a longer life of field for the gigantic Valhall area. 

The concept consists of a new process and wellhead platform (NCP) which has a bridge connection to the Valhall field centre, and an unmanned platform on King Lear around 50 km from the field centre. New infrastructure will be laid on the seabed to connect the two fields.  

The Valhall area is powered from shore resulting in close to zero emissions during normal operations. The plan is to connect the new installations to the existing power from shore solution. 

Valhall has produced over one billion barrels since the field opened in 1982. The ambition is to produce another billion barrels during the next 40 years.  

CEO of Pandion Energy, Jan Christian Ellefsen says in a comment:  

“This is an important milestone in the further development of the Valhall area. Through this development we can further maximise value creation from an existing field. Moreover, the Partnership will further contribute to significant value creation for its owners and the Norwegian society in an area with a clear environmental profile reflecting Pandion Energy’s Net Zero Carbon Strategy. 

In relation to the concept select, the Operator Aker BP announced contract awards to alliance partners for front-end engineering and design (FEED) valued at approximately 440 million kroner. 

For further information see Aker BP’s press release: https://akerbp.com/en/aker-bp-awards-contracts-worth-440-million-kroner/

Hod B platform successfully installed

The Hod B platform is the second platform to be delivered under the fixed platform alliance including Aker BP, Aker Solutions and ABB.  The first normally unmanned platform delivered by the fixed platform alliance was Valhall Flank West, delivered in June 2019. Hod B is a copy.  Since acquiring a 10 percent share of the Valhall and Hod fields in December 2017,  Pandion Energy has worked closely together with the operator in further increasing the value creation through new projects and modernisation in the area.

“This is an important milestone in revitalising the Valhall and Hod area. We are very impressed with another successful achievement by the operator and the alliance partners on the delivered results so far and that while handling a pandemic. Congratulations go out to everyone involved,” says Jan Christian Ellefsen CEO of Pandion Energy.  

The Hod B topsides were placed on the jacket on the Hod field in the southern part of the North Sea on Sunday 8 August.

Effect of the temporary tax changes 

The first steel for Hod B was cut in Verdal, just hours after the Norwegian Parliament adopted temporary changes in the petroleum tax in June of last year. The tax changes were introduced to stimulate increased investments, and thus secure Norwegian jobs in an extremely demanding period for the oil and gas industry. 

More than a hundred suppliers across Norway have contributed to the Hod development. At peak, around 550 people from Aker Solutions, the alliance and subcontractors have been working on the Hod B project at the yard in Verdal. More than 50 apprentices have completed large parts of their vocational training on the project. The expertise acquired through the Hod project is also sought to be applied in upcoming renewable projects such as delivery of suction anchors and seabed installations for Hywind Tampen.     

Important for the future of Valhall 

Hod B will be remotely operated from Valhall, and the field will have extremely low CO2 emissions due to power from shore.  

Valhall has produced over one billion barrels since the field opened in 1982. The ambition is to produce another billion barrels during the next 40 years. Hod B is estimated to contribute with around 40 million barrels of oil equivalents.  

Several subsea campaigns will be conducted in the Hod project leading up to production start in 2022, such as installation and connection of the gas lift pipelines, production flowlines and umbilicals. Modification work is under way at the Valhall field centre, and the Maersk Invincible drilling rig will be arriving this autumn to drill production wells. 

For more information see press release from the Operator:  https://akerbp.com/en/hod-b-platform-safely-installed/

PL 820 S has concluded the drilling of appraisal wells on the Iving discovery

The wells were drilled about 8 kilometres northwest of 25/8-11 Ringhorne on the Balder field in the North Sea, about 200 kilometres west of Stavanger.

The 25/8-19 S (Iving) discovery was proven in 2019 in reservoir rocks from the Palaeocene (Heimdal Formation), the Early Jurassic (Statfjord Group), the Late Triassic (Skagerrak Formation) and in basement rock.

Before appraisal wells 25/8-21 S and 25/8-22 S were drilled, the operator’s resource estimate for the discovery was between 2 and 11 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent in the Skagerrak formation.

The primary exploration target for well 25/8-21 S was to encounter the oil/water contact in sandstones in the Skagerrak Formation. The secondary exploration target was to evaluate the petroleum potential in the basement rock reservoir.

The primary exploration target for well 25/8-22 S was to evaluate the petroleum potential in sandstones in the lower part of the Statfjord Group and in the Skagerrak Formation. The secondary exploration target was to evaluate the petroleum potential in the Heimdal Formation and basement rock.

The results show that the appraisal wells will lead to a downward adjustment of the resource estimate in the Skagerrak Formation in 25/8-19 S (Iving), but it is still too early to give an updated estimate for the discovery.

The licensees will assess the results in the Skagerrak Formation in combination with other petroleum-bearing levels and discoveries in the area for further follow-up.

For more information see full press release from the Operator at the NPD webpage.

Launching Wellify, instant access to the subsurface!

Wellify is the first product coming out of Cuttings Insight, a non-commercial collaboration project initiated by Pandion Energy in 2020, with DNO Norge AS and Spirit Energy Norway AS as partners and Itera ASA as technical provider. The launch of Wellify marks the end of a successful development and test period. The product is now daily in use with all three companies, demonstrating the rapid acceptance of new digital solutions when user driven. 

The idea behind Wellify was to provide the geoscientists with easy access to the high-resolution photos and mineral analysis coming from another joint industry collaboration project, namely the Released Well Initiative (RWI). With cuttings samples from more than 1,900 wells on the Norwegian continental shelf being digitalised, on average 300 – 400 samples per well, this project has created more than two million files and 30 terabytes of data.  

Bente Flakstad Vold, VP Exploration & Appraisal at Pandion Energy says:

Cuttings data has traditionally been an under-utilized and hidden data type. Wellify makes the digital cuttings data accessible and brings new valuable and insightful information about the subsurface.

Wellify provides instant and dynamic access to the photos and data from the Released Well Initiative. As all files are streamed through a cloud-based solution, users get immediate access without having to download large quantities of RWI data sets or to install and integrate a new software into existing systems. 

The project is currently enrolling new members and will enter the next development phase, further investigating additional functionality and potential uses of the data set from the Released Well Initiative.  

 

Read more about Wellify.

For more information regarding digitalisation in Pandion Energy and Cutting Insight contact: 

Helge Nordtorp 

(+47) 416 37 430 

helge.nordtorp@pandionenergy.no 

 

For a demonstration of Wellify contact: 

Bjørn Haugland 

(+47) 986 84 646 

bjorn.haugland@pandionenergy.no  

 

Hod B jacket in place

The Hod field will be developed with a normally unmanned installation (NUI), Hod B, which will be remotely operated from Valhall and run on power from shore, yielding close to zero CO2 emissions during normal operations. 

Hod is one of the first projects to be realised under the temporary changes to the Norwegian petroleum Tax Act introduced in June 2020 following the COVID-19 breakout. The field is expected to generate more than NOK 6 billion of tax revenues during its lifetime. Including ripple effects, the project is estimated to create around 5 000 man-years of employment during the execution phase. 75 per cent of the contract values for construction of the Hod B platform and subsea installations have gone to Norwegian supplier companies. 

Both the jacket and topsides are being built at Aker Solutions in Verdal, and the work has secured a number of jobs at the yard. The Hod B platform is being delivered by the fixed facilities alliance between the operator Aker BP, Aker Solutions and ABB. The alliance also successfully delivered the Valhall Flank West NUI in June 2019. 

Hod B jacket
The Hod jacket sailed from Verdal on Sunday, 27 June, and is not installed at the field.

Hod B is expected to contribute 40 million barrels of oil equivalent and will be important for Valhall to reach the ambition of a total of two billion produced barrels from the area. Production is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2022.  

The Hod field has produced oil in the past from what was the first unmanned platform on the Norwegian continental shelf. The new Hod platform is a copy of Valhall Flank West. 

The Hod B topside is scheduled to sail from the Verdal yard in August. At the same time work is under way to plan remaining activities to complete the project. Multiple subsea campaigns will be conducted to install and connect the gas lift pipe, production flowline and umbilical. Integration work is under way on Valhall and the Maersk Invincible drilling rig is scheduled to start drilling production wells this autumn. 

Aker BP ASA is the operator of the Valhall and Hod fields. Pandion Energy AS holds 10% ownership interest in the Valhall area, including licenses PL006B, PL033 and PL033B.

Publication of the annual report for 2020

Jan Christian Ellefsen, CEO of Pandion Energy, stated the following:

“The ongoing pandemic affected both operational priorities and financial progress in 2020. During these challenging times, our key priorities have revolved around ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees, protecting operations and, finally, ensuring that Pandion Energy maintains a solid financial platform.

Our priorities will continue to revolve around ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our employees, protecting our operations, and securing a solid financial position until the Covid-19 situation has normalised.

Operationally, our strongest priority is to deliver production and continue developing the Valhall and Hod fields and progress the appraisal of the recent discoveries. This alongside maturing related upside potential and further developing our exploration portfolio.”

Pandion Energy’s revenues and other income for 2020 amounted to USD 116.6 million (2019: USD 125.1 million) and comprised net sales of oil and gas, gains from the sale of interests in licences and gain/loss from hedging positions.

Average net production for Pandion Energy was 5,639 boe per day (boepd), compared with an average of 4,334 boepd in 2019, driven by new Valhall infill wells and Valhall Flank West coming on stream during the year.

The board of Pandion Energy continues to monitor the situation related to the coronavirus pandemic closely.

In 2020, Pandion Energy was one of the first E&P companies in Norway to become carbon neutral for Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and announced a strategy in early 2021 for maintaining its position with a low carbon impact and net zero status.

The board considers Pandion Energy to be well positioned for further growth. The company remains committed to its strategy of being an active and responsible partner, participating in all phases of oil and gas resources on the NCS.

Pandion Energy Annual Report 2020

Pandion Energy completes acquisition of Iving interest

Pandion Energy AS and Wintershall Dea Norge AS have completed their previously announced transaction, whereby Pandion Energy has acquired a 2.5% non-operated interest in PL 820S, comprising the Iving oil and gas discovery announced in 2020, and a 15% non-operated interest in PL 617. Following completion, Pandion Energy holds a 12.5% interest in PL 820S and a 15% interest in PL 617.

PL 820S is located in blocks 25/7 & 8, north-northwest of the Balder and Ringhorne fields. The partnership is currently planning an appraisal campaign to be carried out later this year.

PL 617 is located in block 2/9, east-northeast of the Valhall & Hod fields. Earlier this year, the partnership drilled an exploration well on the Eidsvoll prospect. The well was reported dry.

Related post: 31 December 2020 – Pandion Energy acquires license interests from Wintershall Dea.

Pandion Energy Launches Strategy to Net Zero Carbon

Pandion Energy recognises that climate change is of critical importance to the future of the planet and supports the goal of the Paris Agreement to achieve a carbon neutral global economy.

The commitment to carbon neutrality has been achieved initially by offsetting CO2 emissions through programmes that are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Despite the Company’s carbon intensity per produced barrel being one of the lowest in the global E&P industry – ranging from 1.2 – 3.4 CO2e/boe for its net production – Pandion Energy recognises the importance of minimising its carbon impact as swiftly as possible.

Pandion Energy’s approach to maintaining its low carbon impact position is set out in its Strategy to Net Zero Carbon document and includes:

  • Pursuing exploration and appraisal opportunities only in areas with existing or plausible future access to renewable energy sources
  • Incorporating GHG emissions and the potential for future carbon reduction as a new investment criterion for Development and Production assets
  • Incorporating the cost of carbon in evaluating new investments

Pandion Energy aims to align our disclosures with the recommendations set forth by Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”) from 2021.

CEO of Pandion Energy, Jan Christian Ellefsen says:

A carbon light strategy has always been an imperative for Pandion Energy and our ongoing commitment to carbon neutrality alongside our new investment criteria represents a further positive step in our ambition to achieve Net Zero.

“As the rest of the world starts to move closer to Norway’s leading position on carbon emission reduction, we will continue our work to minimise our footprint and support other players in the sector to do the same.

We also see that further improvements to sharing of environmental data from operators to partners in all licences on the NCS, is an important step to reduce the industry’s climate footprint. Pandion Energy will be working actively towards a common industry standard for sharing and reporting on such data.”

Download Pandion Energy’s full Net Zero Strategy statement.