Polish oilmen go Arctic

The Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo (PGNiG) opens an office in northern Norway and buys license shares in Norwegian Arctic projects. The company has now taken over Danish company Dong’s offices in the northern Norwegian town of Tromsø and prepares for exploration in Arctic waters.

“We are in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea, and now we are looking towards the Barents Sea”, company representative Slawomir Hinc says to Nord24.no. He confirms that the upcoming 23rd License Round is of special interest for the company.

In that license round, the Polish company will compete with Russian companies Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as a number of other companies, for stakes in projects located further north and further east than ever before on the Norwegian shelf. If successful, PGNiG could potentially get license stakes in projects located directly along the maritime border to Russia.

The Polish company is part of the Statoil-lead consortium which has completed comprehensive collection of seismic data in the easternmost waters of the Norwegian shelf, Nord24 writes.

The takeover of the Tromsø office also includes the eight staff members who previously worked for Dong.

The Arctic engagement of the Polish companies comes after years of operations in Norway. In 2007, the company established an office outside Norwegian oil capital Stavanger. At present, PGNiG holds interests in 17 licences on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea, including eight exploration licences, as well as licences on four producing fields (Skarv, Vilje, Vale and Morvin) and two fields which are currently being developed (Snadd and Gina Krog), the company informs.

In the Barents Sea the companies has stakes in two project licenses obtained as part of the 22nd License Round.