Norwegian oil firm Okea is looking at four options to develop its North Sea Grevling oil discovery, which in turn could impact on the company’s valuation in a deal with Thai investor Bangchak Corp. PCL (BCP), Okea said Sept. 11.

BCP has agreed to invest 939 million Norwegian crowns (US$112.25 million) in Okea to partly finance the company’s 4.5 billion crown ($537.8 million) acquisition of Royal Dutch Shell’s stakes in the Draugen and Gjoea fields.

Okea, which plans to list on the Oslo stock market in the next 12 months, said the deal between BCP and Okea’s majority owner, private equity firm Seacrest Capital, values the Norwegian oil firm at 860 million Norwegian crowns ($103 million).

The valuation could fall, however, to 778 million crowns ($93 million), or rise to 940 million, depending on whether or not the company is able to decide on a concept selection and a plan for development (PDO) before the IPO takes place.

The various development options for Grevling included a stand-alone FPSO as well as a subsea tie-in to an existing platform.

Okea also said it is considering installing a jack-up rig with a floating storage and offloading facility, or a wellhead platform, and that its aim is for a per-barrel break-even price below $35-40 when production starts in 2020-22.

Redeployment of a leased FPSO could allow it to bring the field onstream in 2020, but this would also be the most expensive option, the presentation showed.

Okea has a 55% stake in Grevling after selling 15% to U.K.’s Chrysaor in March, while Norway’s state-owned Petoro has 30%.

Chrysaor has an option to increase its stake to 35% in the discovery estimated to hold 16 million barrels of oil equivalents (MMboe) to 51 MMboe.

Okea also said Repsol’s Yme Field redevelopment project, where it holds a 15% stake, was on track to start production in first-quarter 2020.

Yme’s recoverable proven and probable reserves are estimated at around 66 million barrels (MMbbl) of oil, based on a 10-year field lifetime, but the long-term ambition will be to produce 90 MMbbl of oil, the presentation said.

Offshore