Three for three for Vår Energi as it finds more oil in Barents Sea

Norway’s oil and gas player Vår Energi has made an oil discovery in an exploration well near a field it operates in the Barents Sea.

Wildcat well 7122/8-3 S confirmed oil in the Zagato prospect, directly north of the Goliat field, the Norwegian firm stated. Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between between 15 and 43 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent (mmboe). 

This is the eleventh well in production license 229 in the Barents Sea which was awarded in 1997 in a round of awards called the Barents Sea Project -97. Vår Energi is the operator with a 65% interest, while Equinor holds the remaining 35%.

The well was drilled by the COSL Prospector semi-submersible rig, which was also used for the Egol prospect in production license 1131 a little over a month ago.

Since Vår Energi plans to conduct further exploration in the area, the rig’s next destination is well 7122/7-8, Goliat nord. The rig is set to drill more infill wells at the Goliat field before returning to the Goliat ridge later this year.

“The Zagato discovery reinforces Vår Energi’s position as a leading exploration company on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). Close proximity to existing infrastructure provides opportunity for a fast track, low emission, cost-efficient development utilising available capacity at the Goliat FPSO, adding high value barrels,” said Vår Energi’s COO, Torger Rød.

“With additional wells being drilled this year, we see an opportunity to unlock significant additional resources as tie-back projects to Goliat. The recent discoveries continue to strengthen Vår Energi’s ability to sustain high value production of 350-400 kboepd in the longer-term.”

As stated by the Norwegian player, the 7122/8-3 well had two exploration targets. The first was to prove petroleum in the Middle Triassic reservoir rocks in the Kobbe Formation, while the second aimed to prove petroleum in the Middle/Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Realgrunnen sub-group.

Regarding the primary target, the well encountered oil columns totaling 72 meters in the Kobbe Formation, distributed over three reservoir zones. The reservoir quality is reported to vary from good in the upper part to moderate in the lower part. The oil/water contact was not encountered.

As for the secondary exploration target, a three-meter oil column was found in the Tubåen Formation, with a total thickness of 20 meters and very good reservoir quality, says Vår. The oil/water contact was encountered 1427 meters below sea level.

In addition, a two-meter oil column was proven in the Klappmyss Formation in a sandstone layer with moderate reservoir quality. The well was not formation-tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.

The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2542 meters below sea level and was terminated in the Klappmyss Formation in the Lower Triassic. The water depth at the site is 410 meters. The well has now been temporarily plugged and abandoned.

This complements the Countach discoveries announced in December 2024, bringing the total gross estimated recoverable resources up to a high case reaching around 100 mmboe. The partners intend to assess the discovery together with other nearby discoveries and prospects to potentially tie it back to existing infrastructure on the Goliat field.

The Countach appraisal and Zagato wells are part of the planned two-year drilling campaign in the Barents Sea, where Vår Energi plans to drill around 20 exploration wells over four years. 

The Norwegian firm believes the discoveries continue to demonstrate the potential of the Goliat ridge, which comprises a series of adjacent fault-bounded prospects next to the Goliat field. The estimated gross discovered and prospective recoverable resources at the ridge have now increased to above 200 mmboe.

The Zagato discovery is located 8 kilometers northeast of the floating storage, production, and offloading (FPSO) Goliat, which Vår Energi considers one of its core areas on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). The discovery of hydrocarbons in separate fault blocks in Countach, Countach appraisal, and Zagato is believed to “significantly” derisk the prospectivity in the undrilled areas.

According to the operator, the good-quality reservoirs found in the exploration wells are similar to those in the producing Goliat field. A new 3D and a 4D seismic survey is planned for summer 2025 accompanied by the drilling of two further exploration/appraisal wells starting around the end of Q3 2025 to complete the remaining potential delineation and accelerate the progress to development studies.

As for Vår’s partner in the field, Equinor, the firm welcomed the 370-meter-long FPSO Bacalhau constructed by Japanese giant MODEC to its Bacalhau field offshore Brazil earlier this week.