Calgary-based Nexen is preparing to nominate offshore blocks for the Norwegian 20th licensing round on September 28 ahead of re-processing and ordering surveys of its existing Norway acreage.

Company general manager for Norway, Nancy Foster, told an audience in Oslo late Tuesday that its contract for Seadrill’s West Alpha as part of a “rig club” of companies would help the company do in Norway what we have done in the United Kingdom, where Nexen now produces some 100 thousand barrels of oil per day.

“It’s the type of platform (of projects) we’re looking at developing here in Norway,” Foster said.

Though operator of five exploration licenses in Norway, the U.K. continental shelf was still “the lowest cost basin in the world” she added.

The UKCS’s Buzzard oilfield would be ramped up to 200,000 barrels of oil per day when a ninth well comes on stream, while at nearby Ettrick, a floating production storage and offloading vessel, or FPSO, will hurry the production of at least 9,000 bpd for Nexen.

The company also revealed it had its own market for codensate as a “solvent” to help transport oil sands heavy oil, since otherwise “it doesn’t flow”. At Knotty Head in the Gulf of Mexico, the finding of 600 feet of net pay has pointed the way to an estimated “200 to 500 MMbbls in place”.

And while Nigeria was “slow going”, the company still expected 100,000 bpd by year-end.

No trouble marketing the company’s 900,000 bpd of crude, as company traders have increased their cash flow "twenty-fold".

ws@scandoil.com