Equinor has made two new industrial hydrocarbon discoveries within the Norwegian North Sea, with oil discovered close to the Troll space and fuel and condensate found within the Sleipner space.
The oil discovery was reported on the Byrding C prospect, located 5km north-west of the Fram subject inside the Troll area. This new discover holds an estimated 4 to eight million barrels of recoverable oil.
In the meantime, the Frida Kahlo discover, drilled from the Sleipner B platform north-west of Sleipner Vest, is believed to include between 5 and 9 million barrels of oil equal (mboe) in fuel and condensate. Plans point out that manufacturing from the Frida Kahlo nicely will start as early as subsequent month.
Drilling of the Byrding C nicely was executed by the COSL Innovator rig in manufacturing licence 090 HS. Equinor Power owns a 75% share within the block whereas INPEX Idemitsu Norge holds the remaining 25%.
The Frida Kahlo discover resides inside licence 046 (Sleipner licence), operated by Equinor Power (58.3%), with Orlen Upstream Norway (24.4%) and Vår Energi (17.2%) as companions.
Latest exercise within the Troll space has resulted in a number of finds.
Since 2018, Equinor has participated in drilling 26 exploration wells throughout the prolonged Troll area, which encompasses Fram. In accordance with Equinor, 19 of those wells have yielded discoveries, giving a discovery price exceeding 70%.
Within the Sleipner space, 4 consecutive exploration wells – Langemann, Lofn, Frida Kahlo and Sissel – have produced fuel and condensate discoveries over a three-month interval.
Mixed useful resource estimates for these 4 finds vary from 55mboe to 140mboe. The Lofn and Langemann discoveries collectively marked Equinor’s largest operated discover on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) within the earlier 12 months.
Equinor Sleipner space exploration and manufacturing vice-president Cecilie Rønning mentioned: “These discoveries are the results of a focused exploration effort within the Sleipner space. Sleipner is a vital hub for fuel exports to Europe, and we should do all the things we will to determine the remaining sources within the space. The discoveries give grounds for optimism as we plan to drill three further exploration wells and two new manufacturing wells within the space this 12 months.”
All 4 latest Sleipner space discoveries have been made inside the Hugin formation. Future improvement plans for Langemann, Sissel and Lofn contain subsea tie-backs to current infrastructure, focusing on start-up inside two to a few years.
Ocean backside node seismic information provided by TGS and Axxis, and processed by Viridien, together with four-dimensional seismic surveys processed by TGS (PGS), have been used to assist these exploration efforts.