German oil and gas company Wintershall Dea, along with partners Petoro and DNO, has announced a gas condensate discovery at the Cuvette prospect offshore Norway.
The find, located in the northern North Sea, south of the Vega Central field, has encountered gas condensate in sandstones of Middle and Upper Jurassic age.
Preliminary estimates suggest recoverable volumes of 9–22mboe in the primary Middle Jurassic target and 7–16mboe in the shallower Upper Jurassic target.
The licence partners are now exploring the possibility of expediting production by leveraging the existing Vega/Gjøa area infrastructure.
Wintershall Dea’s manages the Vega and Nova subsea fields and holds several exploration licences in the northern North Sea.
Additionally, the company is a shareholder in the Gjøa platform, serving as an export hub for the region.
Wintershall Dea used Transocean Norge’s rig to drill the Cuvette well.
This rig has also been used in the development of the Maria field in the Norwegian Sea, appraisal of the Bergknapp and Adriana discoveries, and drilling production wells on the Nova field in the North Sea.
It will also be used to complete the Maria Phase 2 wells through the end of 2025, and start drilling the Dvalin North development wells in 2026.
Wintershall Dea Norge vice-president of exploration and subsurface Roy Davies said: “Our strategy is to identify new volumes close to infrastructure that can be quickly developed into new fields. Our goal will now be to establish the commerciality for this new discovery by evaluating development options.”
This discovery follows Wintershall Dea's divesture of its 10% interest in the Ghasha gas concession in Abu Dhabi to Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production Public Company.
This sale was part of a broader corporate restructuring following the December 2023 business combination agreement between Wintershall Dea shareholders BASF and LetterOne, and Harbour Energy.
