By Athanasios Pitatzis

In today’s article we will cover the history of the exploration wells in Norway since 1966 until now in comparison with Cyprus oil and gas discoveries until the given date. According to the publish data from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) Norway has drilled 1675 exploration wells until today and 4100 production wells in the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). In comparison Cyprus until now has drilled only 3 exploration wells until the given date. [1] [2]

Offshore drilling activity  on Norway through time

Source of the photo: http://www.geomodsol.com/data-analysis-tableau/

Source of the photo: http://www.geomodsol.com/data-analysis-tableau/

Source of the photo: http://www.geomodsol.com/data-analysis-tableau/

Source of the photo: http://www.geomodsol.com/data-analysis-tableau/

Source of the photo: http://www.geomodsol.com/data-analysis-tableau/

It us obvious from the above graphs that to discover oil and gas reserves takes a lot of time and the procedures of exploration and production are slow. If anyone want to observe all Offshore drilling activity  on Norway through time he can visit this website :http://www.geomodsol.com/data-analysis-tableau/    which is provided by GeoModelling Solutions.

Norway’s oil history in 5 minutes 

In the late 1950s, very few people believed that the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) might conceal rich oil and gas deposits. However, the discovery of gas at Groningen in the Netherlands in 1959 caused people to revise their thinking on the petroleum potential of the North Sea. This discovery led to enthusiasm in a part of the world where energy consumption to a large extent was based on coal and imported oil. In the eagerness to find more, attention was drawn to the North Sea. Norway’s geological expertise was negative to oil and gas deposits, but this could not stop the enthusiasm after the gas discovery in the Netherlands. The rest of the story you can read it from this website: https://www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/energy/oil-and-gas/norways-oil-history-in-5-minutes/id440538/

Conclusion 

Cypriots and Greeks must understand that the journey of oil and gas exploration on Greek and Cyprus EEZ starts now and they must be patient and optimist for the results. Finally they must understand that this journey will take place for decades.

Athanasios Pitatzis, Energy Analyst at CyprusGasNews

Production and Management Engineer, Democritus University of Thrace, 2014-2015 Postgraduate student in TEI Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (Kavala) in the Masters of Science in Oil and Gas Technology (http://msc.petrotech.teikav.edu.gr/). I write articles on Greece within a variety of internet web portals in the fields of Geostrategy, Geoenergy and energy policy. Also I possess a Certificate-Seminar E-Learning on Geopolitics and Security Issues in the Islamic Complex Turkey-Middle East from Ethnikon and Kapodistriakon University of Athens. Member of Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE Section of Kavala (http://www.spe-kavala.org/ ) (http://spe.org/ ) 

References:

[1] Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), http://www.npd.no/en/

[2] Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) exploration and production well data, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD)

This article was first published by Cyprus Gas News on 28th of March 2015, the ogiginal link: http://www.cyprusgasnews.com/archives/7743/norway-has-drilled-1675-exploration-wells-since-1966-cyprus-has-drilled-only-3-until-now-so-to-find-oil-and-gas-you-need-time-and-a-lot-of-effort/