Potential Value of Aldous/Avaldsnes Field Up to USD 13 Billion

Wood Mackenzie’s analysis of the giant Aldous/Avaldsnes discovery appraisal programme reveals the potential value of the field could now be as much as US$13 billion.

Geoff Gillies, Wood Mackenzie’s North West Europe Lead Analyst puts the revised size of the discovery in context; “At the upper end of current expectations and based on currently commercial fields, the field could account for 20% of Norwegian oil supply from 2020, rising to over half by 2027, making a vital contribution to Norway’s long term oil production. This would rank it as the third largest Norwegian oil discovery of all time, and the seventh largest find in the history of the North Sea.

“With the recoverable reserves estimate now ranging from 1.2 to 2.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent, the field could be worth between US$6.7 billion and US$13 billion.”

Gillies explains the technical significance of the programme’s results: “Crucially, the recent appraisal not only proves the continuous geological structure across licences PL265 and PL501, operated by Statoil and Lundin respectively, it also indicates higher porosity, higher oil saturation and a net to gross ratio of close to 100%.”

Wood Mackenzie points out that as the field straddles two licences with different participants, a unitisation agreement still needs to be agreed but says it’s a positive sign that the two operators have already formed a joint team to undertake conceptual development studies. Gillies continues, “The companies with interests in either licence will benefit hugely from the growing success of this new find, which in some cases will be transformational.”

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Source: Wood Mackenzie , October 6, 2011; Image: Statoil