Norwegian oil and gas company Okea has inked an agreement that will give the company a 50% stake in the DNO Norge-operated Brasse field offshore Norway, increasing the odds that the 2016 discovery will move ahead.

Okea said the sales and purchase agreement, effective 1 January, will allow the partners "to undertake a fast-track, low cost review to assess whether a value accretive development concept can be found for the estimated 30 (million barrels of oil equivalent) recoverable volumes at Brasse".

Brasse is an oil and gas discovery in 120-metre water depths in the northern North Sea. The field lies 13 kilometres south of the Okea-operated Brage field and 13 kilometres south-east of Equinor's Oseberg Field Center.

The transaction is subject to extension of the license and approval by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Okea said.

New impetus

The deal could give new impetus to development of the Brasse field, which DNO acquired in a 2019 hostile takeover of Aberdeen-based Faroe Petroleum.

The project remained stalled amid commerciality concerns following the Faroe acquisition. DNO said earlier this year that it was aiming to sanction a plan of development and operation for Brasse in 2022.