Fjord fiesta - Scanorama

Special advertising supplement
Wintershall Norge stepping up in the North Sea
ENTERING THE
TOP LEAGUE
By Inger Lise Welhaven
WINTERSHALL NORGE IS investing both
money and manpower to step up their activities
on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
Alv Bjørn Solheim, who just started as new
Manager of Production Operations, arrived at
an exciting time. With a recently signed deal
that will see the company take operatorship
of its own production field for the first time in
Norway, and the decision on how to develop
the Maria Field scheduled for the first half of
2013, he will spearhead Wintershall Norge’s
transition from an exploration-centric firm to
a producing operator.
Alv arrived at Wintershall on October
1st, and the very same day he was flown to
London to help finalize the biggest deal in
the company’s history: the acquisition of 15
percent in Gjøa, 30 percent in Vega and 32.7
percent in the Brage Field. The Statoil deal
meant divesting a 15 percent stake in the
young Edvard Grieg field, but was a necessary
sacrifice according to the new manager,
“
Through this cooperation
with Statoil, we
are moving a big step
forward in realizing our
growth strategy and expanding
our activities
right at the source. This
enables us to become one
of the leading producers
in Norway and balance
our global portfolio even
more effectively.
”
Rainer Seele, Chairman of the Board
of Executive Directors of Wintershall.
who is excited about the future.
– To take over an operatorship is a very
challenging project with many people involved
both in our company as well as in Statoil.
Dur ing this project we have to implement
many IT-systems and we also have to expedite
the ongoing implementation of a Governing
Do cu ment system in the company, he explains.
Originally Alv has a background as an
entre preneur, and now he feels a similar sense
of possibility at Wintershall Norge: – We will
be among the operators taking a really long
view on the NCS. We are bringing production
towards us, swapping production in the long
term for production in the short term. We are
filling the gap between 2013 and our ambitions
in 2015. This will give us a lot of experience
for our development projects Skarfjell and
Maria and other future discoveries.
To run the day-to-day business related to
Brage, Wintershall will open an office in Bergen
and take on between 60 and 100 employees
in addition to more than 120 people
offshore to run the Brage installation.
WINTERSHALL NORGE
Wintershall, a subsidiary of BASF, is
Germany’s largest international active
crude oil and natural gas producer and
has produced oil and gas for the European
market for more than 80 years. Wintershall
Norge came to Norway in 2006, bought
the exploration company Revus in 2008
and holds today about 50 licences in the
North Sea (Norway and UK), being the
operator of about half of them.