Norway: Wintershall Dea awarded 11 licences in APA 2022 round

• 11 exploration licences awarded to Wintershall Dea Norge – including three as operator
• Strengthened acreage position in core areas around existing infrastructure

Wintershall Dea has been awarded 11 exploration licences in the annual Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) licencing round in Norway, including three as operator. The awards strengthen the company’s position as a leading operator with a strategy of exploring in areas near existing infrastructure.

“We highly value the consistency of the APA system, which provides regular and reliable access to new acreage in mature areas of the Norwegian Shelf.  These awards will help to replenish our licence portfolio and provide further exploration drilling opportunities in the coming years.”  said Michael Zechner, Managing Director Wintershall Dea Norge, after the awards were announced by Norway’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Terje Aasland, on January 10.

The APA 2022 awards, which include five new licences and six area extensions, are all located in mature areas of the Norwegian Shelf where Wintershall Dea has an existing acreage position.

Of the four awarded licences in the North Sea, two (both operated) are located close to Wintershall Dea’s own operated Vega and Nova fields. The seven other new licences are located in the Norwegian Sea, where Wintershall Dea operates the Maria and Dvalin fields.

“We have been very successful with our exploration strategy in Norway in recent years, which is primarily focused on exploring close to our own fields and infrastructure. The high number of awards demonstrates our commitment to continue exploring the Norwegian Continental Shelf, and underlines Wintershall Dea’s position as one of the leading explorers in Norway,” said Georg Bresser, Senior Vice President Global Exploration.

Wintershall Dea has participated in numerous discoveries in the APA area in recent years, including the operated Bergknapp and Dvalin North discoveries made in 2020 and 2021 respectively, as well as the Ofelia, Hamlet, Storjo, Newt and Oswig East discoveries in 2022.

Following participation in a total of ten exploration wells in Norway in 2022, the new awards further strengthen Wintershall Dea’s position as one of the leading explorers on the shelf. Besides replenishing the licence portfolio, the awards provide Wintershall Dea with the opportunity to apply new ideas to areas that have been licensed several times before. This strategy has proven highly successful in recent years, with a total of 17 discoveries in Norway since Wintershall and Dea merged to form a new company in 2019.

The Ministry awarded a total of 47 licences to 25 companies in the APA 2022 licensing round. The round comprises blocks in predefined areas in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea. 

Wintershall Dea is one of the largest licence holders on the Norwegian Shelf with a portfolio of over 90 exploration and production licences, including the new APA 2022 awards.

North Sea:

PL 248 K (40%) (operator)
PL 1100 C (20%)
PL 1149 B (40%) (operator)
PL 1181 (40%)

Norwegian Sea:

PL 159 H (40%)
PL 327 C (19%)
PL 1155 B (30%) (operator)
PL 1186 (20%)
PL 1187 (20%)
PL 1191 (30%)
PL 1195 (30%)

_{About Wintershall Dea}

_{Wintershall Dea is Europe’s leading independent natural gas and oil company with more than 120 years of experience as an operator and project partner along the entire E&P value chain. The company with German roots and headquarters in Kassel and Hamburg explores for and produces gas and oil in 12 countries worldwide in an efficient and responsible manner. With activities in Europe, Russia, Latin America and the MENA region (Middle East & North Africa), Wintershall Dea has a global upstream portfolio and, with its participation in natural gas transport, is also active in the midstream business. More in our Annual Report.}

_{As a European gas and oil company, we support the EU's 2050 carbon neutrality target. As our contribution we have set ourselves ambitious targets: We want to be net zero across our entire upstream operations – both operated and non-operated – by 2030. This includes Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (indirect) greenhouse gas emissions on an equity share basis. Wintershall Dea will also bring its methane emissions intensity below 0.1 per cent by 2025 and maintain zero routine flaring of associated gas in its operations. In addition, we plan to reduce emissions resulting from the use of hydrocarbons by applying CCS and low-carbon hydrogen technologies, potentially building up a business abating 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 per annum by 2040. You can find more about this in our Sustainability Report.}

_{Wintershall Dea was formed from the merger of Wintershall Holding GmbH and DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG, in 2019. Today, the company employs around 2,500 people worldwide from almost 60 nations.}