Page 10 - Danish Offshore Industry 2016

We shall carry on exploring and operating the producing felds in a sensible way, but just at this moment we fnd ourselves in a “time of decisions”. – seen from the perspective of the North Sea Fund – con- suffciency. That will provide us with a lot of jobs, too, siders this as a decisive parameter for future projects. and with revenue to the State – resources we shall need for i.a. the “green” transformation, which will in no way In spite of dropping oil prices the North Sea Fund is be cheap,” states Peter Helmer Steen looking forward to meeting a lot of will of the oil companies to go ahead. a more hands-on approach to the future of the Danish th The number of applicants at the 7 Concession Round sector. turned into a new record and Peter Helmer Steen stresses how important it is for the many applicants to maintain “When it comes to development and decommissioning, their belief in the proftability of continuing exploration in my world it is not a question of either or, but both if they may count on being able to tie-in to the existing and. Some platforms defnitely are to be scuttled as infrastructure. they will be of no further use, but new installations shall replace the existing ones. To Danish frms this means “Naturally, interest in exploration depends on the costs jobs in both cases - if the frms are competitive, that is,” of recovering, but if a discovery of a suitable size is points out Peter Helmer Steen. made, production may start-up relatively fast, so in such a case it is important to be able to offer reasonable To the question of his hopes for the National Strategy for and transparent conditions to all parties,” states Peter the North Sea, Peter Helmer Steen concludes: Helmer Steen, who can see at least two major benefts from the calculation: “As I mentioned before, in the years to come important decisions shall be taken regarding long-term invest- “One is that large amounts of oil and gas are still waiting ments. The challenge is clearly the declining production to be recovered from the North Sea, and the other one of oil and gas. This decline we have to stabilize or even is that a sensible renovation makes it possible to use the fnd ways of increasing production. I feel, however, that existing infrastructure. That is why the challenge is to the many challenges ahead can be overcome if we ap- focus on establishing a cooperation between the compa- proach them in a sensible and wise way – and if we can nies owning the infrastructure and the other operators. obtain supporting frames the opportunity for arriving In other words, to develop a model agreeable to the oil at a positive result is far greater. Therefore, I hope for companies as well as to the Danish State.” a positive attitude among all parties when discussing the decisions to be taken. And then, of course, it would BOTH AND help quite a bit if the oil price was not quite as low as it Based on this, Peter Helmer Steen is pretty confdent is now…” ■ regarding future production basically meeting the main amount of the future Danish consumption. “It looks as if for many years ahead we shall be able to produce a considerable amount of our own need for oil and gas. We shall continue to have a high degree of self- 8 / A TIME FOR DECISIONS