Q&A: NPD upbeat on upstream activity

摘要

Norway’s upstream sector has driven down costs since the 2014-16 oil price slump, and the giant Johan Sverdrup field has piqued investor interest in the maturing oil province’s potential. Argus spoke to Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) director-general Bente Nyland about the challenge of sustaining investor interest beyond Sverdrup. Edited highlights follow: What is the mood in the Norwegian oil and gas industry? We see a lot of positivity. There is a high level of activity, and all the development plans we received last year are now in execution. And we see exploration picking up. We have done an analysis, and you need to be drilling about 30-40 wildcat wells a year to be able to add resources. In that sense, exploration drilling is important, particularly when there are no obvious elephants to drill, because you need more smaller discoveries to make it economic and you need more wells.