RWE Dea to Participate in 2 Norwegian Licenses

Following the completion of the 2009 licensing round (APA), the Norwegian Energy Ministry awarded RWE Dea interests in two new exploration licenses. The first interest is a 3.636-percent stake in license PL552, which is part of Block 34/7. Stakes in this license are also held by Idemitsu (12.468%), Petoro (30%) and Statoil (53.896%) as the operator. The second interest offered to RWE Dea Norge is a 20-percent stake in the production license PL539, located in Block 3/7 near the border with Denmark. The remaining stakes in this license are held by Dana Petroleum (20%), Petro-Canada (20%) and Nexen (40%) as operator. Both these licenses are located in the North Sea.

The license PL552 is on the eastern boundary of the Snorre/Tordis/Vigdis fields and borders on the area covered by license PL089, in which RWE Dea Norge also holds a stake. The work program for the new license provides for a well to be drilled within the next two years. "In the new license PL539, a 3D seismic campaign covering an area of 250 square kilometers will be carried out as part of the work program," explained Hugo Sandal, Managing Director of RWE Dea Norge.

With the award of the interests in PL539 and PL552, RWE Dea Norge was offered the two licenses it had applied for. In the APA 2009 licensing round, the Norwegian Ministry of Energy evaluated applications from 44 companies in total and awarded 38 licenses to 42 companies. Of these licenses, 25 are located in the North Sea, ten in the Norwegian Sea, and three in the Barents Sea.