Equinor makes oil, gas discovery near North Sea Oseberg field

Equinor ASA discovered oil and gas in two formations near Oseberg field in the North Sea and will work to improve understanding of the discovery and to identify production solutions, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said in a release Nov. 3.

Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery in the Eiriksson formation at 0.2-0.4 million standard cu m of recoverable oil equivalent. The preliminary size estimate for the discovery in the Cook formation is 0.2-1.0 million standard cu m of recoverable oil equivalent.

The exploration well, 30/6-C-2 A (Lambda), was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,795 m subsea about 4 km west of Oseberg field from the Oseberg C platform in the northern part of the field in production license 053 (PL 053). It was terminated in the Eiriksson formation. Water depth at the site is 109 m.

The primary exploration target was to prove petroleum in Upper Triassic to Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Statfjord Group. The secondary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Cook formation.

The well encountered about 23 m of oil and gas-filled sandstone with good reservoir quality in the Eiriksson formation in the Statfjord Group. In the Cook formation, the well encountered about 15 m of oil and gas-filled sandstone with moderate to good reservoir quality. The petroleum-water contact was encountered in the Eiriksson formation, but not in the Cook formation.

The well was not formation-tested, but data collection has been carried out.

Equinor is operator the license with 49.3% interest. Partners are Petoro AS (33.6%), TotalEnergies (14.6%), and ConocoPhillips (2.4%).