The Norwegian outfit of global energy business BG hopes to drill as many as 14 wells at the Bream and Knarr discoveries over the next two years, a company employee said.

BG Norge's Knarr floatinog production, storage and offloading vessel, or FPSO, is being custom-built at a yard in South Korea. When the vessel test floats, a 2013 drilling campaign offshore Norway will see "six to seven wells" drilled. The North Sea discovery of 2008 was enlarged in 2011 with the Knarr West structure, and production is expected in 2014 although area tie-ins are still envisioned.

Bream development planning still awaits approval from Norwegian lawmakers, but they have never said "Nei" to a field development. Production is envisioned in 2014, but seven wells are planned. Unlike Knarr, it is hoped an older FPSO can be successfully refitted at Bream.

BG Norge is being fed by first flows of hydrocarbons from the Gaupe field, a "fast-track" development which went on stream less than two years after its Plan for Development and Operation, or PDO, was submitted to parliamentarians.
Meanwhile, the company is hopeful it will secure a Barents Sea operatorship in two prized Barents Sea licenses in the upcoming Awards in Predefined Areas, oil ministry's tender of select acreage. The $70-billion parent company, BG Group, produces 641,000 barrels of oil equivalent, three quarters of it gas, and is the kind of financially fortified company the Ministry prefers to have operating in the sensitive Barents Sea.

BG Norge has just emerged from a long period of asset swaps and analysis and is keen to start a new era of Norwegian operations from the North Sea to the Arctic.

"After a period of portfolio maturation and rationalisation, the company is now set for renewed focus on growth, particularly in the  frontier areas ..., " a statement said.

Meanwhile, a lease-and-operate contract has been signed with Teekay for the Knarr FPSO and the Samsung yard-build is well advanced. Like Knarr, the Bream discovery of the early 1970's will be tapped via subsea tie-in to a leased FPSO.

More than many, the Group's gas focus is expected to reap rewards when a new offshore pipeline and land facilities are built as part of the Åsgård development led by Statoil.

Tags: BG Norway