Equinor and Aker BP enter into a strategic collaboration on tight reservoirs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Through technology development, standardisation and greater scale, the companies aim to enable the profitable development of more discoveries and increase oil and gas recovery.

Significant volumes of oil and gas remain in tight reservoirs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The Norwegian Offshore Directorate has estimated a recoverable resource potential of around 2.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent in mapped tight reservoirs, comparable in size to the expected recoverable resources of the Johan Sverdrup field. Many of the approximately 90 discoveries that have yet to receive a development decision are located in such reservoirs.

Tight reservoirs have low permeability, meaning that oil and gas flow very slowly through the rock. Using conventional methods, only a limited share of the resources can be recovered, and many discoveries are too costly to develop on a standalone basis. The Norwegian Offshore Directorate has therefore encouraged companies to work together.

“By taking a portfolio-wide approach and developing common solutions, we can reduce costs and accelerate technology development. This can make more of these discoveries commercially viable. The benefits will be shared by licence owners and society alike,” says Kjetil Hove, Executive Vice President for Exploration & Production Norway at Equinor.

The collaboration covers prospects, discoveries and projects across the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The companies will contribute relevant opportunities from their respective portfolios and jointly identify where technology development, standardisation and exchange of experience can create the greatest value. The collaboration also includes resource maturation and well stimulation solutions. The ambition is to establish a sufficient and predictable activity level to support a competitive value chain, with the expertise and supplier capacity required to develop more tight reservoir discoveries.

The collaboration will be governed through a joint steering structure and multidisciplinary working groups comprising representatives from both companies.

“Scale is the key. By considering opportunities across both portfolios, we can create the basis for increased activity, faster learning and lower costs. Together, we can develop solutions more quickly and deploy them at a larger scale. We are starting this work immediately,” says Karl Johnny Hersvik, Chief Executive Officer of Aker BP.