Wintershall has been awarded a new drilling permit by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Well 35/12-5 S will be drilled from the Transocean Arctic drilling facility after completing the drilling of wildcat well 6406/2-8 in production licence 589. The company is the operator with an ownership interest of 45% while the other licensees are Capricorn Norge AS with 20%, Explora Petroleum with 17.5% and Talisman Energy Norge with 17.5%.
Wintershall has named a successor to Rainer Seele after he was named as the new chief executive of OMV. Mario Mehren, currently a member of the the board of executive directors of Wintershall, will take on the role from July 1. He is currently responsible for exploration and production for the company covering the regions of Russia, North Africa and South America.
Statoil has completed its deal with German oil and gas company Wintershall to exit two assets in the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The transaction involves a farm down in Aasta Hansteen, Asterix and Polarled as well as signing over its assets in the non-core Vega and Gjoa fields. Statoil said it would allow it to redeploy around $1.8billion of capital expenditure from now until the end of 2020.