Turning point for Zidane

Positive news for Zidanes these days. While Zinedine Zidane, one of the world’s best football players in history and the current manager of Real Madrid, is still enjoying his team’s Saturday’s victory over their arch rivals Barcelona, another Zidane, in Norway, is getting ready for a fresh start.

Namely, the Norwegian Zidane is not even a person. It is a gas field in the Norwegian Sea discovered in 2010. The Zidane field is located in Production Licence 435, operated by Dea Norge.

The Zidane field, located approximately 15 kilometres North West of the Heidrun field and 35 kilometres South of the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea, was awarded in APA 2006. The first well was drilled in September 2010 and discovered a 150 metres gas column in the Fangst group.

The second discovery, drilled to the adjacent structure, was made in 2012. Zidane 2 also discovered a 140 metres column of gas in the same interval. The total size of the discoveries is estimated to between 14 – 22 billion cubic metres of recoverable gas.

The field has been sitting undeveloped for a few years, but it seems now the waiting period is over, as the operator has managed to reach an agreement to tie-in the Zidane resources to the nearby Heidrun facility.

This had been the plan all along, however in September 2014, Dea said the plan would not be submitted as planned in October 2014, as the project needed “further value enhancement”.

At the time, RWE Dea, as the company was then known, said the Zidane and Heidrun partners had been negotiating regarding the Heidrun tie-in, but had not been able to resolve all issues.

Turning point.

As Real Madrid’s Zidane said on Saturday, the win over Barcelona could be a turning point for his team, the Norwegian Zidane is now on the verge of its own turning point, as the plan for development and operations could be delivered to the Norwegian authorities in a few months.

In an e-mail sent to Offshore Energy Today on Monday, a DEA Norge spokesperson said:  “We can confirm that DEA Norge and Zidane partners reached an agreement before Easter with the Heidrun license regarding commercial terms related to the Heidrun tie-in.”

The original development concept revealed in early 2013 called for a tie-in to the platform at the Heidrun oil and gas field and a gas export through the Polarled pipeline system.

“We are continuing the work towards handing in a PDO in summer 2016, but the final investment decision is not yet taken,” the DEA Norge spokesperson said.

To wrap up with another football analogy. During his senior career, Zinedine Zidane played for four football clubs: Cannes, Bordeaux, Juventus and Real Madrid.

Similarly, the Norwegian gas field namesake also “plays” for four, not clubs, but energy companies: DEA Norge 40%, OMV Norge 20%, Maersk Oil Norway 20% and Edison Norge 20%

Offshore Energy Today Staff