Equinor Makes Discovery Near Troll Field in North Sea
In a statement posted on its website on Tuesday, Equinor announced that it has made a discovery 17km (10.5 miles) west of the Troll field in the North Sea.
The company noted in the statement that the discovery is currently estimated at between two and 12 million barrels of oil equivalent and said the find consists of both oil and gas.
Equinor revealed that the preliminary name of the discovery is Ringand and pointed out in the statement that this is the second find “in a short time in the area”. It said the discovery “will probably not be commercial for development in isolation”.
“It's a small discovery, but in an interesting area that we plan to further explore with much existing infrastructure,” Geir Sørtveit, Equinor's senior vice president for Exploration & Production West on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS), said in the statement.
“If more discoveries are made, it may be relevant to combine these to ensure good resource utilization and the best possible economy,” the Equinor representative added.
The discovery was made in exploration well 31/1-4 in production license 923/923B, Equinor noted in the statement. Licensees for the asset comprise Equinor, with a 60 percent stake, DNO Norge, with a 20 percent interest, and Petoro, with the remaining 20 percent interest, the statement outlined.
In a separate statement posted on Equinor’s site back in November, the company announced that it had “struck oil and gas near the Fram field in the North Sea”. The discovery is estimated at between 13 and 28 million barrels of oil equivalent, Equinor noted at the time.
In a statement posted on the Norwegian Offshore Directorate’s (NOD) site yesterday, NOD confirmed that “Equinor and its partners have discovered oil and gas in wildcat well 31/1-4 (Ringand) in the North Sea”.
“Preliminary estimates indicate the size of the discovery is between 0.3 and 2 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent, which corresponds to 1.9-12.6 million barrels,” NOD added.
NOD highlighted in the statement that Production license 923 borders Troll øst and the Fram area and noted that previous discoveries made in the region include 31/1-2 S (Røver nord) and 31/1-3 S (Røver sør).
“The licensees have assessed the previous discoveries as commercially profitable, and they will consider development solutions tied back to existing infrastructure,” NOD said in the statement.
“Ringand was exploration well number seven in production licence 923/ 923B. This well is registered as the first well in production licence 923 B,” it added.
According to Equinor’s website, Troll contains about 40 percent of total gas reserves on the NCS and represents “the very cornerstone of Norwegian gas production”. Troll is also one of the largest oil fields on the NCS, the site states, highlighting that, in 2002, oil production from the asset came in at more than 400,000 barrels per day.
The field consists of the main Troll East and Troll West structures in blocks 31/2, 31/3, 31/5 and 31/6 in the North Sea, the site notes. Troll is located in the northern part of the North Sea, about 65km (40.3 miles) west of Kollsnes near Bergen, the site highlights.
Equinor is the operator of the Troll A, B, and C platforms and the landfall pipelines, and Gassco is the operator for the gas processing plant at Kollsnes on behalf of Gassled, the site points out, adding that Equinor is the technical service provider for Kollsnes operations.
In a statement posted on its site on December 16, NOD announced that Vår Energi and Equinor had proven oil in appraisal well 7122/8-2 S in the Barents Sea.
“The well was drilled to delineate the ‘Countach’ discovery near the Goliat field,” the NOD highlighted in the statement.
“After the appraisal well, the preliminary estimate of the size of the discovery is between 1.6 and 8.3 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent. This corresponds to 10-52 million barrels,” it added.
In a separate statement posted on its site on December 10, NOD said “Wintershall Dea (Harbour Energy) has proven gas in appraisal well 6507/4-5 S in the Norwegian Sea, 270km [1659 miles] north of Kristiansund”.
“The preliminary estimate of the size of the discovery in the Lange Formation (Sabina) is between 2.7 and 6.2 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent. This corresponds to about 17-39 million barrels of oil equivalent,” it added.
A statement posted on Wintershall Dea’s website on September 3 announced that, as of that date, Wintershall Dea’s E&P business, excluding Russia-related activities, had been transferred to Harbour Energy plc.
In a separate statement posted on NOD’s site on December 2, NOD said DNO and its partners had discovered oil in the ‘Othello’ prospect in the southern North Sea.
“Preliminary estimates indicate the size of the discovery is between 4-9 million standard cubic meters of oil equivalent, which corresponds to 25-57 million barrels of oil equivalent,” NOD said in that statement.
To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
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