RWE Dea to Kick Off Natural Gas Field Development

RWE Dea announced that with an operating profit of roughly 128 million euro in the first quarter 2010 the company remains on its growth track in the international gas and oil business. While several field development projects in the UK and Northern Africa are on the brink, RWE Dea also successfully accomplished the acquisition of two new license areas in the United Kingdom.

"I am confident of likewise making substantial progress with our announced growth targets as well as the planned production increase," said Thomas Rappuhn, CEO of RWE Dea AG. The company will invest in promising projects, such as field developments in the UK, Norway, Egypt, Algeria and Libya. "By developing successfully explored gas fields in the UK, we lay the foundations for further growth of the company," Thomas Rappuhn continued.

The last two years have changed the face of RWE Dea UK. RWE Dea has almost doubled its acreage in UK and has shares in 10 exploration and 21 production licenses. For about 60 percent of the acreage, RWE Dea holds operatorship including the producing fields Cavendish and Topaz. This month, RWE Dea UK was awarded the blocks 43/17a and 43/18a remaining from the 25th license round. These adjacent blocks are situated in the Southern North Sea. RWE Dea will be operator for both blocks.

RWE Dea UK is now at the beginning of key field development work. Three development projects are about to start, two of them operated by RWE Dea UK - Clipper South and Breagh, the other - Devenick under BP operatorship.

The biggest RWE Dea project in the UK is the development of the Breagh field, one of the largest natural gas fields still to be developed in the Southern North Sea: The Breagh field is a conventional Carboniferous reservoir in the north of the UK Southern North Sea some 65 km off the NE coast of England. After last year's acquisition of the Breagh area (RWE Dea as operator with 70 %) with own reserves of up to 13 billion m³ of gas, RWE Dea as operator is intensifying the development with the aim of launching production as early as 2012.

Last Sunday the drilling rig Ensco 72 came on hire for RWE Dea's 2010 exploration campaign. The rig has arrived in the Breagh area on location in Block 42/19a and is about to spud the Airidh exploration well to explore further potential in this area. "The anticipated drilling time is about a month, that means we will have the results by the end of June. Drilled back to back, the next well will be Macanta in Block 42/14. Here the target is slightly deeper and it will take about two months to reach it," Managing Director of RWE Dea UK, René Pawel, explained.

For the second development project, Clipper South RWE Dea (operator with a 70% stake) is well placed to develop the gas field located in Blocks 48/19a, 19c, 20a and 20b in the Southern North Sea approximately 60 kilometers north east of the eastern coastline of Great Britain. In the base plan, the field will be developed by horizontal multi-fraced wells. The platform installation is planned for late summer 2011 with drilling to begin thereafter. First gas is expected end of 2011.

The Devenick development operated by BP, where RWE Dea has a share of 11.3% is a gas condensate reservoir located in UKCS Blocks 9/29a and 9/24b in the northern North Sea approximately 187 km south east of the Fair Isle, 192 km south east of Shetland. The Devenick development lies in a water depth of approximately 114 m. Drilling will start later in 2010, offshore installation of pipeline and facilities will start in 2011. First gas is planned mid 2012.

René Pawel said, "Our current development projects will enable us to significantly increase our production by 2012. Further appraisal and exploration potential in the Breagh area and our other licenses will contribute to our efforts to maintain this production level in the future." RWE Dea will continue to participate as competent partner in upcoming license rounds, in order to further extend the portfolio accordingly.