Noreco pushes ahead with Huntingdon

Norwegian Energy Company (Noreco) said today it still plans to tap the first oil at the Huntington discovery in the UK sector of the North Sea in 2010 after the field's operator was put under administration.

"This is clearly something the partners are still hoping for and working on," Noreco spokesman Einar Gjelsvik said.

Operator Oilexco has appointed administrators for its Oilexco North Sea Limited subsidiary, the Canada-based company said today.

Administrators will seek a sale of Oilexco's North Sea assets.

"In the mean time, the project is going ahead as planned, and then we will have to see if we get a new partner," Gjelsvik said.

"For an administrator that wants to preserve value, we presume it is important to continue work. There's no investment being made at this stage, only man hours," he said.

Noreco owns 20% of the Huntington discovery in UK licence P1114.

Oilexco has a 40% interest, and the other partners are Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas with 25% and US Carrizo Oil & Gas with 15%.

Two exploration wells last autumn on neighbouring block 22/14a showed that the Huntington discovery extends into that block, Gjelsvik told Reuters.

That means a deal needs to be struck with the neighbour block's partners before the Huntington owners can file a plan for field development, which Noreco says it expects to do in the first quarter this year.