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The North Sea may be a mature oil and gas basin, but it is still yielding more discoveries, as highlighted by two Norwegian energy companies, Equinor and Aker BP, which have struck gas/condensate on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), underscoring the potential to find and develop additional resources from the region’s established petroleum infrastructure and one of Europe’s longest-producing basins.
The Norwegian Offshore Directorate has announced that Equinor (operator) and Aker BP, as its partner, discovered gas/condensate in the Linga prospect within the exploration well 25/7-13, which was drilled in production license 782 S , 16 kilometers northwest of the Balder field and 205 kilometers west of Stavanger.
This is the third well drilled in this production license, which was awarded in 2015 (APA 2014). The primary exploration target for the wildcat well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Late Jurassic in the Draupne Formation (Brae Formation-equivalent).
The well 25/7-13 encountered gas/condensate in separate sandstone layers in the Draupne Formation with a total thickness of 13 meters. The sandstone layers were of moderate reservoir quality. The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 4,606 meters below sea level, and terminated in the Heather Formation from the Late Jurassic.
The exploration well was not formation-tested, but extensive volumes of data and samples were collected, including cores and hydrocarbon samples. The water depth at the site is 126 meters, and the well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.
Based on preliminary estimates, the size of the discovery is between 0.1 and 2.1 million standard cubic meters of recoverable oil equivalent. The licensees are now reviewing the results from this and the other wells to consider further prospectivity in the production license.
The exploration well 25/7-13 was drilled by COSL Drilling Europe’s COSL Innovator semi-submersible rig, which is now moving on to production license 50 HS in the northern part of the North Sea, where it will drill the wildcat well 34/10-56 S, also operated by Equinor.
This discovery comes months after Equinor found a commercial oil discovery within the Snorre area in the Omega Sør (South) Alfa prospect, located in the North Sea around 200 kilometers northwest of Bergen.