Neptune Energy will double gas production from the Duva field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, as local authorities look to boost supplies to the UK and Europe.
Neptune operates the field with a 30% stake, alongside INPEX Idemitsu (30%), PGNiG Upstream Norway (30%) and Sval Energi (10%).
The output increase follows close work between the partners and the Norwegian authorities to identify measures to help meet gas demand in Europe.
Production at the field currently stands at 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), of which 6,500 boepd is gas.
Under the new measures, daily gas production will double to 13,000 boepd for an initial 4-8 months from the first half of April.
Completed last year, Duva is a subsea installation with three oil producing wells and one gas producer, tied back to the Neptune Energy-operated Gjøa semi-submersible platform.
Gas is transported by pipeline to the UK’s St Fergus gas terminal.
Neptune Energy’s managing director for Norway, Odin Estensen, said: “We are pleased that we, together with our partners and in cooperation with Norwegian authorities, will be able to supply additional and much- needed volumes of gas, enough to heat a further 350,000 UK homes per day.”
It follows separate confirmation of plans by Neptune and its partners to invest some $100 million in the Isabella appraisal well, due to be spudded in the latter half of the year.
Around 70% of Neptune Energy’s Norwegian production is gas, and the company says is “investigating opportunities” to increase production from other fields within its portfolio.
This includes plans for infill drilling at the Cygnus field in the UK southern North Sea, which currently supplies around 6% of the country’s demand.
Meanwhile, Equinor was also recently granted permission by Norwegian regulators for an additional 2.4 billion cubic metres of production from key gas fields, as it looks to maintain higher exports to Europe through the summer.
