Polish energy company ORLEN Group announced on Wednesday (6 September) that it is preparing to launch production from new fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
Over the coming months, the company together with its partners, is set to start production from the Tommeliten Alpha field which is expected to yield an additional 0.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually.
This is one of nine investment projects undertaken by the company in the past two years to increase gas production on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The gas from the new fields will be transported to Poland via the Baltic Pipe pipeline.
“We have built a strong group capable of implementing ambitious investment projects that are pivotal to Poland’s energy independence. Norway is a strategic foreign market for us in terms of expanding our natural gas production. By the end of 2030, gas production from our own fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf will nearly double, reaching 6 billion cubic metres of gas per year. We are planning to start production from the Tommeliten Alpha field within a few months. In terms of gas reserves, it ranks as our second-largest gas field in Norway, expected to yield half a billion cubic metres of gas annually,” said Daniel Obajtek, CEO and President of the ORLEN Management Board.
Tommeliten Alpha is one of the largest investment projects under development on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, with the remaining work to start production already in progress in the field, ORLEN said in a press release.
“Simultaneously, we are developing other fields, which will contribute to ensuring a stable supply of natural gas for Polish industry and households. After acquiring LOTOS and PGNiG, ORLEN integrated their Norwegian assets to enhance its capacity for investing in oil and gas exploration and production in Norway, leveraging the synergies achieved. A new entity has emerged, now counted among Norway’s top ten upstream companies in terms of both reserves and production volumes,” Mr Obajtek added.
ORLEN Group’s PGNiG Upstream Norway has a stake of over 42 per cent in Tommeliten Alpha. The field’s reserves are estimated to range from 80 to 174 million barrels of oil equivalent, with ORLEN holding a share of 33 to 73 million barrels. In addition to natural gas, Tommeliten Alpha will also produce condensate and crude oil.
In addition to Tommeliten Alpha, earlier this year, ORLEN also secured administrative approvals for the development of the Alve Nord, Orn, Fenris, Tyrving, Andvare and Verdande fields and the Yggdrasil area. The development of these projects is expected to yield around nine billion cubic metres of gas over their lifetimes, with field production commencing between 2024 and 2027.
ORLEN aims to increase its gas production segment to 12 billion cubic metres per year by the end of 2030, up from 7.7 billion cubic metres last year, with half of the gas coming from Norwegian fields.
