The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has cut its resource estimate for the Barents Sea by about 11%, it said today. The NPD said it had cut the Barents Sea play’s estimated recoverable resources from 1.03 billion cubic meters of oil equivalent to 910 million cubic meters of oil equivalent.
The NPD said that while estimated volumes in the ground have increased somewhat, the cut was made after taking into account poorer reservoir properties than expected in the Barents, distance to market and costs associated with development, all of which have reduced expectations for the play.
The agency also said it would be difficult to meet the 2005-2015 reserve growth target of 5 billion barrels for the Norwegian continental shelf as recent discoveries have been smaller than expected. The NPD said it now assumes that about 75% of the growth in reserves must come from fields already in operation.