Start up exploration company #Explora Petroleum sets its sights on #Norway

Another start-up exploration company has been formed with up to US $150 million to invest in tackling exploration prospects on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Reported Offshore 247

Stavanger-based Explora Petroleum is aiming to target only the NCS and has received $150 m of investment from private equity investor Warburg Pincus to build up its exploration portfolio. Explora plans to grow through participation in future licensing rounds once it has passed through a pre-qualification process and the company is already targeting Norway’s 22nd exploration licensing round in 2012, as well as the next APA round, expected in September next year.

Explora’s team comprises primarily ex BP staff. The chief executive is John Pickard, an experienced Norway operator. From 1996 onwards he held positions with BP in Norway. In 2002 was seconded to the Norwegian Oil Industry association, the OLF and was responsible for managing the Skarv and Ormen Lange fields through concept selection stages and was responsible for co-founding another explorer Canamens Ltd in 2007, where he became vice president of exploration.

Explora’s exploration manager is  Samuel Johnson, another ex-BP staffer, who was responsible for BP’s participation in Norway’s 16th and 17th Licensing Rounds, and who left BP as director of geology. He was also chief geoscientist at Canamens. Frode Vassbo is Explora’s commercial manager, and was previously managing director of Rig Management Norway, which established rig sharing consortia on the NCS.

Birte Borrevik, previously vice president of projects and technology for Noreco, is the company’s new HSE and operations manager, while another ex-BP man, Knut Hansch, previously principal geophysicist for Canamens, is Explora’s chief geophysicist. Full article available here

Oil and Gas Outlook North Sea will be taking place in March 2012 (27-29) and will bring together North Sea operators to highlight opportunities for operators in the North Sea and overcome the key challenges operators are facing.

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