据今日油价11月19日报道称,路透社援引挪威统计局的最新报告称,由于每桶原油的生产成本上升,挪威石油行业将不得不应对利润率下降的问题。
该机构表示:“从长远来看,似乎始于2013年的低迷时期(当时产量和价格下降)可能标志着挪威石油业的转折点。”
奇怪的是,该报告是在国有石油巨头Equinor 宣布在北海的Fram油田发现多达1亿桶石油的一周后发布的。
“我们正在距Troll油田不远的挪威大陆架(NCS)最成熟的地区进行今年最大的发现之一。这表明了该行业创造价值和创收的机会仍然存在。” Equinor在一份声明中说。
确实,该公司及其同行在新的石油发现,特别是在北极海域,进行了艰苦的战斗。近年来,挪威有两项重大发现: 一是由运营商 Equinor称其为北海巨人的Johan Sverdrup将于今年年底开始生产,二是位于巴伦支海的Johan Castberg油田计划于2022年投产第一批石油。尽管 能源部最近提出了一项 扩大北极地区勘探面积的提议,但迄今为止,勘探工作几乎没有成果。
鉴于上事实,根据NPD的资源估计, 挪威大陆架上未发现的资源中有近 三分之二位于北极的巴伦支海。这就是为什么在该地区投入大量精力的原因,也是为什么缺乏实质性结果令人担忧的原因。
然而,尽管这些前景黯淡,雷斯塔能源公司在最近的报告中指出,在宣布发现Fram之后,2019年将成为挪威石油业五年来最成功的一年。雷斯塔能源公司估计,该发现的可采储量约为7,000万桶石油当量。这将使迄今为止的累计发现量达到5.2亿桶油当量,超过2018年发现的5.18亿桶油当量。
徐蕾 摘译自 今日油价
原文如下:
Mounting Costs Are Posing A Serious Risk To Norway’s Oil Profits
Norway’s oil industry will have to deal with lower profit margins resulting from higher production costs per barrel of crude, Statistics Norway said in a new report as quoted by Reuters.
“In a long-term perspective, it appears that the downturn that began in 2013, when output and prices fell, may have marked the turning point for Norway’s oil industry,” the body said.
Oddly enough, the report comes out a week after Equinor, the state oil major, announced a discovery of up to 100 million barrels in the North Sea, in the Fram field.
“We are making one of this year’s biggest discoveries in the most mature area of the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS), not far from the Troll field. This demonstrates the opportunities that still exist for value creation and revenue from this industry,” Equinor said in a statement.
It is true the company and its peers have had an uphill battle with new oil discoveries, especially in Arctic waters. There have been two major discoveries in recent years in Norway: Johan Sverdrup—the North Sea giant, as operator Equinor calls it—which should start producing by the end of this year, and Johan Castberg in the Barents Sea scheduled for first oil in 2022. Despite a recent proposal from the energy ministry to expand the acreage to be tendered for exploration in the Arctic, so far exploration there has been pretty much fruitless.
This is particularly concerning in the light of the fact that, according to the NPD’s resource estimate, nearly two-thirds of the undiscovered resources on the Norwegian continental shelf lie in the Barents Sea, in the Arctic. This is why so much effort is being put into exploration in the area and this is why the lack of substantial results is so worrying.
And yet, despite these bleak prospects, Rystad Energy said in a recent report that 2019 is shaping up to be the most successful for Norway’s oil industry in five years, after the announcement of the Fram discovery. Rystad Energy estimates the discovery to hold recoverable resources of around 70 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe). This will bring cumulative discoveries year-to-date to 520 million boe, surpassing the 518 million boe found in 2018.