North Energy, Noreco swap assets offshore Norway

North Energy ASA and Noreco Norway AS have entered into an agreement on swapping interests in production licences offshore Norway.

These transactions mean that North Energy acquires 15 per cent of PL 484 in the Norwegian Sea and transfers a 10 per cent holding in PL 616 in the North Sea to Noreco.

PL 484 contains several prospects, with one – Verdande – drilled earlier this year. PL 616 includes the Haribo prospect, where it was recently decided to drill an exploration well – probably in mid-2015. The swap agreement is conditional on government approval, and its effective date has been set as 1 July 2014.

North Energy’s next exploration well will be on the Pingvin prospect in PL 713 west of the Johan Castberg discovery in the Barents Sea. This well is due to be spudded during August, and the company has a 20 per cent interest. Its partners are Statoil (operator) 40 per cent, RN Nordic Oil 20 per cent and Edison 20 per cent.