Talisman Energy Deepens Role in North Sea with U.K., Norwegian Projects

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Talisman Energy (Calgary, Alberta) continued to develop its role in the North Sea with the drilling of a dry well north of the field near Varg, Norway. Earlier this month, Talisman was acquired by Repsol S.A. (Madrid, Spain) through Repsol's Canadian subsidiary Repsol Energy Resources Canada Incorporated for about $8.29 billion.

Other partners in the newly drilled dry well include Ithaca Petroleum Norway, which was recently acquired by MOL Group (Budapest, Hungary); Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA (Trondheim, Norway); and Fortis Petroleum (Asker, Norway). Each of the four partners has a 25% stake.

As part of its expanding Global Oil & Gas Project Database, Industrial Info is tracking $8.6 billion in projects involving Talisman, more than half of which are located in the North Sea. These include ongoing projects, such as the Montrose Offshore Natural Gas Field Drilling Program near Montrose, Scotland, and planned projects, such as the construction of a crude-oil production platform in the Grevling Field near Varg, Norway.

The Montrose project, which has an estimated investment value of $432 million, involves drilling seven infill wells in Block 22/17 of the Montrose field. It is managed by Talisman Sinopec Energy UK Limited, a joint venture with China's state-run Sinopec. The project is expected to wrap up in the third quarter of this year.

Talisman is in the early planning stages for the $1 billion Grevling Oil Platform. As currently envisioned, it would produce roughly 17,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) of oil from the Grevling Field, which is estimated to have 130 million barrels of oil. The project is expected to kick off in the third quarter of 2017 and to be followed by the drilling of a $60 million discovery well in the fourth quarter.

The company hopes to develop the Grevling Field further with a potential tieback to the Petrojarl Varg offshore floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, owned by subsidiary Talisman Energy Norge AS, which can prolong the lifetime of the field.

During the first quarter of 2015, Talisman's production in the North Sea averaged 16,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which was down about 6% from the same period in 2014. Talisman attributed the drop to its shutdown of the Armada platform on the U.K. continental shelf.

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