Equinor Makes Discovery Near Fram Field
Norway's Equinor has made an oil and gas discovery 7 km west of the Fram field in the Norwegian North Sea, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) reported on September 29.
The operator and its partners Petoro and Wellesley Petroleum drilled a wildcat and two appraisal wells at production licence 248 C. The wildcat encountered an oil column and a gas column, while one appraisal well found gas and the other one oil.
The wells have not been formation-tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling indicates that the discovery is 2-6mn m3 (12.6-37.7mn barrels) of oil equivalent in size, the NPD said. The licence partners are assessing whether the find can be tied to existing infrastructure in the area.
The Equinor-operated Fram field has been in production since 2003 and entered decline in 2010. It produced 29,800 barrels/day of oil, 2,070 b/d of condensate and 730mn m3 of gas in 2019, according to Norwegian state data.
The three wells were drilled to vertical depths of between 3,082 and 3,213 m under the seabed, in waters 356 m deep. The West Hercules rig used to drill them will now sink a wildcat at Equinor's production licence 263 D in the Norwegian Sea.