German exploration and production firm Wintershall announced on Wednesday it is ceasing its activities in Qatar and returning Block 4 North near the North Field off the Qatari coast on 25th of May 2015.
The company said it was not granted access to local infrastructure making the economic development of Al Radeef gas discovery unfeasible.
“During the development planning, it was always clear to us and our partners that an economic development of the discovery, including the processing of the gas, would only be possible if we have access to local infrastructure. This access was not granted. That is why we have decided to take this step”, explains Wintershall Board Member Martin Bachmann, who is responsible for exploration and production in Europe and the Middle East.
Wintershall will close its office in Doha. However, its broader activities in the Middle East are not affected by the withdrawal from Qatar, the company said in a statement, adding that it is currently focused on the United Arab Emirates, where it works alongside with Austria’s OMV on the evaluation of the challenging sour gas Shuwaihat field in western Abu Dhabi.
“We are also closely following the developments in other countries in the region”, said Bachmann.
“The challenges in the region are increasing with local energy consumption growing rapidly. In order to maintain production in the long term, fields must be exploited more efficiently and technically more complex fields need to be developed,” he added.
“In combination with modern exploration techniques, it is precisely this experience that we want to increasingly utilise in the Middle East region.”
Wintershall specialises in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and has considerable experience in deploying EOR technology, especially in mature fields in Germany and Europe.
EOR is used to increase the yield from complex reservoirs, with the evaluation of the Shuwaihat field aiming to determine if the method could be utilised to improve production from the field.
