Equinor strikes oil, gas off Norway

Norway's Equinor said on April 21 it had found some 19-26mn barrels of oil equivalent of recoverable oil and gas at the Tyrihans field in the Norwegian Sea, marking its fourth discovery of the year.

The discovery was made at the 640/1-A-3 BH well at production licence 073 at Tyrihans North. It is considered commercial and will be brought into production immediately.

"It is encouraging to prove new resources that can extend the life of producing fields in the Norwegian Sea," Equinor's senior vice president for exploration on the Norwegian shelf, Nick Ashton, commented. "Thanks to the location we are able to put the discovery on stream over the Tyrihans field immediately."

The 640/1-A-3 BH well struck into a 43-m gas column and a 15-m oil column in lower-mid Jurassic reservoir rocks. It was drilled by the Transocean Norge rig, which will go on to spud a production well at Tyrihans. Equinor operates licence 073 with a 58.8% interest, while France's Total has 29.1% and Var Energi, part-owned by Italy's Eni, has 12.1%.

Equinor has enjoyed strong exploration results so far this year. It made Norway's first find of 2021 in February near the Troll field in the North Sea, estimating its size at 44-69mn boe. It went on to discover 31-50mn boe of oil near Johan Sverdrup in the Barents Sea in early March and 75-120mn boe of oil later that month in the North Sea near Fram.