Equinor Makes Norway's First 2021 Find

Norway's state-owned Equinor and its partners have made a gas and oil discovery at production licence (PL) 923, in the Norwegian North Sea near the Troll gas field, marking the first find on the country's shelf this year.

An exploration well and an appraisal well were drilled at the permit some 10 km northwest of Equinor's Troll and 18 km southeast of its Fram field. The aim was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic and Early Jurassic layers. The exploration well encountered a 145-m gas column and a 24-m oil column, while the appraisal borehole struck 12-m and 17-m oil columns.

The find, named Rover North, is estimated to be 44-69mn barrels of oil equivalent in size. It adds to a number of previous discoveries near Trom and Fram in recent years, including Echino in 2019 and Swisher in 2020.

"The licensees consider the discovery commercial, and will explore development solutions in towards existing infrastructure," Equinor said in a statement on February 5.

Equinor operates PL 923 with a 40% interest, while Petoro, Wellesley Petroleum and DNO Norge each have 20% shares. They were awarded the permit in 2018 but these are the first wells to be drilled in the area. The group are considering drilling at several adjacent prospects at the permit, while Equinor intends to target the matured Blasto and Apodida prospects at the neighbouring PL 090 licence next.

The 31/1-2 S exploration well was completed to a 3,440-m vertical depth while the 31/1-2 A appraisal well was drilled to a depth of 3,452 m. The water depth at the site is 349 m. The West Hercules semi-submersible rig which was used will go on to sink the first well at PL 090.