Shearwater in 'Pioneering' Seismic Survey Project Offshore Norway

Offshore seismic survey specialist Shearwater on Friday announced a new project with the Austrian oil firm OMV for a "pioneering" towed streamer survey with Ocean Bottom Nodes over the Berling gas and condensate discovery in the Norwegian Sea. 

Spanning 1040 sq.km, this hybrid survey starts in July 2023 and will last for three months. 

Shearwater's vessels, SW Tasman and Oceanic Vega, will lead the operations. 

SW Tasman will operate as an ROV node deployment vessel for first time, following its conversion announced in October, 2022 and will deploy the nodes before Oceanic Vega acquire the multi-Azimuth towed streamer survey.

Irene Waage Basili, CEO of Shearwater, highlighted the importance of the project, saying, "By completing the conversion of SW Tasman, Shearwater has adapted our fleet to control more operational factors in-house as we meet the increased demand in the seabed market. We are looking forward to demonstrating our upgraded capabilities to OMV on this innovative towed and OBN hybrid survey." 

Berling gas and condensate discovery

OMV's Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) for the Berling gas and condensate discovery off Norway was approved by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in June.

OMV submitted the plan to the Norwegian authorities on behalf of the Norwegian Sea license partners in December 2022. The Berling was previously known as the Iris Hades discoveries.

"Berling is one of our key natural gas development projects and is geared to increase the share of natural gas in our portfolio as outlined in OMV’s Strategy 2030. The gas and condensate volumes are expected to further strengthen Norway’s position as an important European supplier of natural gas,” Berislav Gaso, Executive Vice President for Energy, OMV AG said in June.

The Berling production license area is located about 235 km from Kristiansund in the Northwestern part of Norway, in a mature oil and gas province with established infrastructure. 

The closest hub is the Equinor-operated Åsgard B platform, approximately 23 km to the southeast. Berling will be developed through the Asgard B tie-in.

Three production wells will be drilled at the Berling field starting Q3/2026 with expected first gas and condensate production in 2028.

The estimated gross recoverable reserves are expected to be around a total of 45 mn boe. 

The Berling discoveries in the production licence 644 (PL 644) area were made 2018. OMV (Norge) AS is the operator for the development and operations with 30% working interest. The license partners are Equinor Energy AS (40%) and DNO Norge AS (30%).