Nova (formerly Skarfjell) is planning to submit the field development plan to the Norwegian authorities in H1 2018. The selected development concept is four production wells and three injection wells from two subsea templates tied back to the Gjøa platform. Neptune which operates Gjøa has raised concerns about the potential tie-back which it has now raised with the Ministry of Petroleum.
Nova is an oil and gas field operated by Wintershall and this would make it the company’s second development in Norway after Maria. The field is estimated to contain c.100mmboe of resources with c.70% oil. In December, the Ministry ruled that field that tie-back to existing infrastructure only need to cover the direct incremental costs of the host platform and not any of the existing operational costs. This was intended to boost activity in Norway. However, Neptune claims that the tie-back could increase overall costs for Neptune as well as impact its ability to tie-back its own discoveries including Cara and 35/9-3 in the vicinity.
A response from the Ministry is now pending and the ruling could determine how the Nova development plan filing will proceed.
The Nova partners are Wintershall/DEA (35% operator/10%), Cairn (20%), Spirit Energy (20%) and Edison (15%).
