Wintershall Dea is divesting its ownership of the Brage field and transferring the operatorship to the mid-late life specialist operator OKEA. In the next chapter of Wintershall Dea’s story in Norway the company will build on its strength as one of the largest subsea operators on the shelf.
“Norway is and remains an important core region for Wintershall Dea’s production in our global portfolio,” says Dawn Summers, Chief Operating Officer at Wintershall Dea. “With the sale of our interests in Brage and Ivar Aasen, we are further strengthening our focus in Norway on gas production. Here we already have a strong position in the country, and our major projects Dvalin and Njord, that are planned to come on stream by the end of 2022, will add further gas volumes that secure energy supply in Europe,” Summers adds.
As part of the agreement, OKEA purchases Wintershall Dea’s 35.2% share in the Brage field and 6.46% share in the Ivar Aasen field, as well as 6% of the Nova development for EUR 108 million (NOK 1.1 billion). In addition, payments linked to the fulfilment of certain conditions are part of the transaction.
Focus on further gas volumes
“We remain one of the biggest producers in Norway, and one of the largest exporters of gas, while also robustly shaping our business for the opportunities we see coming on the shelf,” says Managing Director at Wintershall Dea Norge, Michael Zechner. “Through this agreement, we have not only realised value for our assets and exited the operatorship of Brage in favour of a company which specialises in mid-late life fields, we have also gained a valuable partner in our operated Nova license,” Zechner underlines. In Norway, Wintershall Dea will put an even stronger focus on exploration, development, and production in core areas, to continuously develop a low-carbon asset portfolio and position the company within carbon management and hydrogen.
Wintershall Dea’s total production in Norway was 159,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2021, more than half of which was natural gas. Volumes from upcoming projects Nova, Njord and Dvalin will add around 70,000 to 80,000 boe/d. Production from Brage and Ivar Aasen totalled around 6,000 boe per day.
Strengthening efficient and low-carbon subsea production
Wintershall Dea is moving forward on the Norwegian Continental Shelf as a subsea operator with a focus on gas and carbon management projects. The company is committed to having net zero upstream activities by 2030 (Scope 1 and Scope 2, operated and non-operated at equity share basis) by increasingly focusing on assets with a low carbon footprint and strict emissions management. The gas-weighted company is already the third largest subsea operator by number of fields in Norway and is now also pursuing carbon management opportunities on the shelf.
Subject to customary approval by authorities the deal is expected to be completed in Q4 2022. The transaction will then be effective retroactively from 1 January 2022.
