Norway’s Okea takes FID on Brasse oil find in boost for Oseberg flows

Norwegian independent energy company Okea and partner DNO have taken a final investment decision on an oil tie-in project known as Brasse they hope to bring on stream in H1 2027, they said April 8, in a boost for Oseberg crude volumes.
Brasse, estimated at 24 million barrels of oil equivalent, is to be renamed Bestla, referring to Norse mythology. It will be tied in to the nearby Brage field operated by Okea, from where crude is sent to the Oseberg complex.
North Sea mainstay Oseberg loads at Sture on the Norwegian coast — May loadings are expected to average a little over 90,000 b/d, based on a copy of the loading program seen by S&P Global Commodity Insights March 28.
The grade is a component in Dated Brent price assessments by Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights. Dated Brent was assessed at $93.31/b on April 5.
Okea took over an operating stake in Brage from Germany’s Wintershall Dea in 2022 and managed to boost crude production from the field to around 10,000 b/d in 2023 following promises to increase drilling.
Okea and DNO hold equal 39.3% stakes in Brasse, with DNO’s stake stemming from its 2019 purchase of Faroe Petroleum.
They aim to submit a development plan to the authorities in the current month, with Brasse production expected to last until 2031 and “potential for extension” beyond that, Okea said.
The production plateau is estimated at 26,000 boe/d and should be reached in the first year of output, Okea added.
The project “consists of a two-well subsea tie-back to the Brage platform, which will serve as the host facility for production, processing and export. Use of standard solutions, well-proven technology and close cooperation with strategic partners will ensure an efficient and cost-effective development,” Okea said.
“As a tie-back to Brage, both licenses will benefit from synergies and economies of scale,” Okea senior vice president for projects and technology Knut Gjertsen added.
Okea is listed in Oslo, with Thailand’s Bangchak Corporation as its largest shareholder. It has been growing its production, with output of 30,000 boe/d in 2023, and a boost expected from a recently purchased 28% stake in the Statfjord complex.
DNO expansion
DNO said the new project would “extend the commercial viability of the Brage facilities, allowing DNO and partners to squeeze more oil and gas out of Brage, which has been in production since 1993.”
DNO noted it had been stepping up its North Sea activity in recent years, with two projects under development, Andvare and Berling, and a “string” of others in the maturation process.
DNO has taken a hit to the other branch of its business, in northern Iraq, due to the shuttering of the main pipeline to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast in early 2023, stemming from a dispute between Baghdad and the semiautonomous authorities in Kurdistan.
“In 2023, DNO was the third most active exploration driller on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and ranked second in discovered volumes with an estimated 100 million boe net to the company,” DNO said.
The other project partners in Brasse are Lime Petroleum and M Vest Energy.
Source: Platts