News

June 19, 2009

Conference Report 2: Northern Petroleum Targets Production Growth In The Netherlands, Tullow Oil Extends The Hunt For Jubilee Look-Alikes To Both Sides Of The Atlantic And Oilbarrel.com Delegates Get An Insight Into Truly Successful Fund Management

By Amy McLellan

Northern Petroleum is a regular and popular presenter at oilbarrel.com conferences but this time it was exploration and technical director Graham Heard who took to the stage rather than MD Derek Musgrove. The AIM-quoted company is active in three core areas, the UK onshore, Italy and the Netherlands, and last year had, according to Heard, “relatively minor” production of 120,000 barrels of oil equivalent (about 340 boepd). The modest production numbers, however, belie the potential of this portfolio to deliver many more barrels over the near-to-medium term, with six oil and gas fields currently under development in the Netherlands.

Heard, however, quite rightly declined to give out production targets and deadlines for this six-field programme as progress in the Netherlands has been fairly glacial to date.  The company entered the country in 2004 with an application for the Papekop discovery and secured five more undeveloped discoveries the following year.  The fields, with combined reserves of 45.5 million boe, were expected to be onstream by now but Heard said the unexpected delays had been helpful, enabling...