Wintershall Dea awarded 13 exploration licences on the Norwegian Continental Shelf

• Five licences as operator
• Acreage focused in core areas
• Awards support growth through exploration

Stavanger. Wintershall Dea has been awarded 13 exploration licences by the Norwegian Ministry of Energy in the 2023 Award in Predefined Areas (APA) – five licences as operator, and eight as partner.

Wintershall Dea has been an active and successful explorer in recent years, participating in 19 discoveries since 2019. Most of these are the result of licences awarded in previous APA rounds.

“The annual APA licensing rounds are crucial for our continued growth and investment on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. In terms of our operated fields, in the last two years we have begun production on Dvalin and Nova, and we will start production on Dvalin North and Maria Phase 2 in the coming years. Most of these developments began with our gaining of licences through awards in previous APA rounds. The continued development of fields ensures that we can supply much needed gas to Europe and especially Germany, where Norway was the most important gas supplier in 2023,” said Michael Zechner Wintershall Dea Norge Managing Director.

The licence awards are divided as follows:

• Three in the North Sea (one as operator) and ten in the Norwegian Sea (four as operator). Nine of the awards are new licences, and four are area extensions to existing licences.

The awarded licences are all located in core areas, supporting Wintershall Dea’s strategy of investing in exploration near existing owned infrastructure.

“Exploring in mature areas where we have a presence means we are already familiar with the geology, thus maximising our chances of making a discovery. Meanwhile, proximity to existing assets means discoveries with lower volumes can still be commercially developed, since they tap into existing infrastructure,” said Roy Davies, Wintershall Dea Norge Vice President for Exploration.

The Norwegian Sea awards are located in the Vøring Basin, where Wintershall Dea has a stake in the Aasta Hansteen field, and the Haltenbanken area, where Wintershall Dea is the operator of the Maria and Dvalin fields. In the North Sea, the awards are located in the Q35 area, close to the Wintershall Dea operated Nova and Vega fields, and the Tampen area close to the Snorre field where Wintershall Dea is a partner.

_{About Wintershall Dea}

_{Wintershall Dea is transforming from the leading European independent gas and oil company to become a leading European independent gas and carbon management company. We have more than 120 years of experience as an operator and project partner along the entire E&P value chain. The company with German roots and headquarters in Kassel and Hamburg explores for and produces gas and oil in 11 countries worldwide in an efficient and responsible manner. With activities in Europe, Latin America and the MENA region (Middle East & North Africa), Wintershall Dea has a global upstream portfolio and, with its participation in natural gas transport, is also active in the midstream business. And we develop carbon management and low carbon hydrogen projects to contribute to climate goals and secure energy supplies.  More in our Annual Report.}

_{As a European gas and oil company, we support the EU's 2050 carbon neutrality target. As our contribution we have set ourselves ambitious targets: We want to be net zero across our entire upstream operations – both operated and non-operated – by 2030. This includes Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (indirect) greenhouse gas emissions on an equity share basis. Wintershall Dea will also bring its methane emissions intensity below 0.1 per cent by 2025. We endorsed the World Bank’s Initiative ‘Zero Routine Flaring by 2030’ and continue to support the initiative aimed at eliminating routine flaring in operated assets by 2030. In addition, we plan to support global decarbonisation efforts by building up a carbon management and hydrogen business to potentially abate 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 per annum by 2040. You can find more about this in our Sustainability Report.}

_{Wintershall Dea was formed from the merger of Wintershall Holding GmbH and DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG, in 2019. Today, the company employs more than 2,000 people worldwide from almost 60 nations.}

_{The shareholders of Wintershall Dea (BASF and LetterOne) and Harbour Energy plc (Harbour) signed a business combination agreement in December 2023 to transfer Wintershall Dea’s E&P business consisting of its producing and development assets as well as exploration rights in Norway, Argentina, Germany, Mexico, Algeria, Libya (excluding Wintershall AG), Egypt and Denmark (excluding Ravn) as well as Wintershall Dea’s carbon capture and storage (CCS) licenses to Harbour. Until closing, Wintershall Dea and Harbour will continue to operate as independent companies. The transaction is, among other things, subject to approvals of merger control and foreign investment authorities in several countries. Subject to these regulatory approvals, closing is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2024. See the full BASF release here.}