Wintershall Raises Forecast for Maria Oil Field

By Kjetil Malkenes Hovland

OSLO--Germany's Wintershall AG on Thursday raised the amount of oil it expects to recover from the Maria field off Norway to 180 million barrels of oil equivalent, up 40 million barrels from an earlier estimate.

"The higher expected recoverable resources for Maria confirm our belief that we're on the right track with our growth strategy in Norway," said Bernd Schrimpf, Managing Director of Wintershall's Norwegian operations.

Wintershall, a subsidiary of BASF SE (BASFY), has increased its output off Norway to arond 60,000 barrels a day after it completed a $1.3 billion transaction with Statoil ASA (STO) to acquire stakes in several fields off Norway, including Aasta Hansteen, Gjoa and Vega.

The company didn't say how falling oil prices have affected the field's economics. The price of Brent oil has fallen more than 40% this year to around $61 per barrel, threatening the profitability of some high-cost oil and gas projects off Norway.

Maria, which was discovered in 2010 and is set to start production in 2018, is among the three largest development projects in the planning stage off Norway, Wintershall said. The company recently awarded a 1.8 billion Norwegian kroner ($244.2 million) contract for the subsea production system to FMC Kongsberg Subsea.

"We have done laboratory experiments that show the water saturation in the reservoir is lower than we originally thought. That leads to higher in-place volumes," said Hugo Dijkgraaf, Maria Project Director at Wintershall, adding that simulations showed "we can improve the recovery factor."

The company plans to deliver a final plan for development and operation to the Norwegian government in the first half of next year. Maria is located in the Norwegian Sea, near the Kristin and Heidrun fields.

Wintershall has a 35% stake in Maria. Its partners include Petoro, which has a 30% stake, and Centrica Resources which holds 20% in the field.

Write to Kjetil Malkenes Hovland at [e-mail]

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