The Norwegian government has upheld its decision to reduce Det Norske’s stake in the Johan Sverdrup oil field.
The move comes after it rejected an appeal from the company against the decision.
The country’s Oil and Energy Ministry made the announcement earlier today.
The Johan Sverdrup project could contain an estimated three billion barrels of oil equivalent and had the potential to operate for up to 50 years.
Det Norske had asked the ministry to award it a larger stake in the field, but the government decided on a cut when it made its decision five months ago.
In Febraury, four out of five shareholders, including Statoil, agreed on how to divide the project, with Det Norske then asking for a review of the agreement.
The decision by the government means that Det Norske will hold an 11.57% rather than the proposed amount of 11.89% previously discussed.
Det Norske had argues that its part of the field – one of the three licences that make up Sverdrup – has more valuable oil with higher concentration and a greater recovery potential and the
company should therefore receive a greater share of the revenue from Sverdrup’s eventual output.
At the time Det Norske chief executive Karl Johnny said it was a “decisive principle” that the ownership interests in Johan Sverdrup are to be distributed according to a combination of volume and value.