ORLEN Upstream Norway has agreed to buy a 20 percent interest in five Norwegian licences, including the producing Goliat field, from Vår Energi. The deal adds almost 60 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) to the Polish group’s Norwegian reserves and is expected to lift its output there by 12,000 boe per day within a few years.
The acquisition covers Goliat and additional documented gas and oil resources on the surrounding Goliat Ridge. ORLEN’s documented share at Goliat exceeds 36 million boe, with a further 22 million boe from Goliat Ridge, around 58 million boe in total, including about 3 billion cubic metres of gas. Investment over the next four years is expected to roughly triple production from these assets, from around 4,000 to 12,000 boe per day, with the fields producing to at least 2040.
“With a single transaction we are increasing our gas and oil resources in Norway by 15 percent,” said ORLEN CEO Ireneusz Fąfara, framing the purchase as part of the group’s drive for energy independence and stable prices. Goliat, discovered in 2000 and producing since 2016, uses a circular floating production, storage and offloading unit powered more than 90 percent from shore-based renewable electricity, giving it an emissions intensity of about 2 kg per boe against a global average of 16 kg.
The transaction still requires Norwegian regulatory approval. Once completed, Goliat will be held by Vår Energi as operator (45 percent), Equinor (35 percent) and ORLEN Upstream Norway (20 percent). For Poland, the deal deepens a domestic supply base in the Barents Sea that ORLEN presents as a contribution to European, and Polish, energy security.
