OMV has made a significant effort over the past year to get a better understanding of the shallow Wisting reservoir. Six wells have been drilled to date, yielding a huge amount of data. In addition, the Wisting team has successfully combined traditional seismic with Controlled Source Electro Magnetic (CSEM) in the technical studies for subsurface optimization.

“Data from the latest appraisal well and the seismic data acquired have given us a better understanding of the area and the resources. We now see the increased potential of Wisting”, said Knut Mauseth, Senior Vice President OMV (Norge) AS.

The current reference conecpt for the Wisting development is an FPSO with a subsea production system consisting of 19 producers and 15 water injectors. The dynamic and static reservoir models have been updated with a new water injection and gas management strategy. The recoverable resources in PL 537 reported to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate for 2018 are estimated at around 440 million barrels of oil compared to 350 million barrels in 2017.

“I am delighted to see that our updated models increase the estimates of the volumes significantly. Wisting is a big discovery, and we have now a more robust business case to move the project forward towards development”, said Mauseth.

Two FPSO concepts in the form of a circular and a ship-shaped hull are being matured, and the final concept selection in the license group is expected in 2020.

PL 537 was awarded during the 20th licensing round in 2009. Wisting is located in the Barents Sea and was discovered in 2013 in exploration well 7324/8-1. OMV (Norge) AS is the operator of PL 537 with a 25 percent working interest. The partners are Equinor Energy AS (35%), Petoro (20%) and Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (20%).

Link to KeyFacts Energy OMV Norway country profile