Equinor Energy and its partners have announced a significant gas discovery in the 'Skred' prospect of the Barents Sea.

The well is estimated to hold 0.3 to 0.5 billion standard cubic metres of recoverable gas, equating to 1.9 to 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent (mboe).

It was drilled 210km north-west of Hammerfest and around 23km north of discovery well 7220/8-1 on the Johan Castberg field.

This discovery is under evaluation for a potential tie-in to the existing Johan Castberg field infrastructure.

The finding marks the 15th exploration well to come into production under licence 532, which was granted during the 20th licensing round in 2009.

Executed by the COSLProspector rig, the well 7220/5-4 drilling aimed to confirm the presence of petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks.

The main target was the Stø Formation, with the Nordmela Formation as a secondary aim.

The well encountered a 14m gas column within the Stø Formation, which included a 70m sandstone layer possessing favourable reservoir quality.

Gas/water contact was identified 1,849m below sea level. Additionally, gas was found in a 3m-thick sandstone layer within the Nordmela Formation, which exhibited moderate to good reservoir quality.

A 14m-thick sandstone layer from the Cretaceous was discovered above the exploration target set primarily, containing a 1m-2m thick oil zone with poor to moderate reservoir quality.

While the well was not formation-tested, it provided extensive data and samples for analysis.

The well achieved a vertical extent of 2,144m beneath sea level and concluded within the Fruholmen Formation from the Late Triassic.

The drilling site's water depth was 415m. Following the completion of drilling, the well will be permanently plugged and abandoned.

In related news, Equinor and its partners committed to a Nkr13bn ($1.2bn) investment earlier this year for the Johan Sverdrup Phase III project in the Norwegian North Sea, aiming to boost recovery by an estimated 40mboe to 50mboe.