Equinor has made two new commercial hydrocarbon discoveries in the Norwegian North Sea, with oil found near the Troll area and gas and condensate discovered in the Sleipner area.
The oil discovery was reported at the Byrding C prospect, situated 5km north-west of the Fram field within the Troll region. This new find holds an estimated four to eight million barrels of recoverable oil.
Meanwhile, the Frida Kahlo find, drilled from the Sleipner B platform north-west of Sleipner Vest, is believed to contain between five and nine million barrels of oil equivalent (mboe) in gas and condensate. Plans indicate that production from the Frida Kahlo well will begin as early as next month.
Drilling of the Byrding C well was executed by the COSL Innovator rig in production licence 090 HS. Equinor Energy owns a 75% share in the block while INPEX Idemitsu Norge holds the remaining 25%.
The Frida Kahlo find resides within licence 046 (Sleipner licence), operated by Equinor Energy (58.3%), with Orlen Upstream Norway (24.4%) and Vår Energi (17.2%) as partners.
Recent activity in the Troll area has resulted in multiple finds.
Since 2018, Equinor has participated in drilling 26 exploration wells across the extended Troll region, which encompasses Fram. According to Equinor, 19 of these wells have yielded discoveries, giving a discovery rate exceeding 70%.
In the Sleipner area, four consecutive exploration wells – Langemann, Lofn, Frida Kahlo and Sissel – have produced gas and condensate discoveries over a three-month period.
Combined resource estimates for these four finds range from 55mboe to 140mboe. The Lofn and Langemann discoveries together marked Equinor’s largest operated find on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in the previous year.
Equinor Sleipner area exploration and production vice-president Cecilie Rønning said: “These discoveries are the result of a targeted exploration effort in the Sleipner area. Sleipner is an important hub for gas exports to Europe, and we must do everything we can to identify the remaining resources in the area. The discoveries give grounds for optimism as we plan to drill three additional exploration wells and two new production wells in the area this year.”
All four recent Sleipner area discoveries were made within the Hugin formation. Future development plans for Langemann, Sissel and Lofn involve subsea tie-backs to existing infrastructure, targeting start-up within two to three years.
Ocean bottom node seismic data supplied by TGS and Axxis, and processed by Viridien, along with four-dimensional seismic surveys processed by TGS (PGS), were used to support these exploration efforts.
The Sleipner complex consists of the Gungne, Sleipner Vest and Sleipner Øst fields, as well as processing hydrocarbons from Utgard, Gudrun, Sigyn and Gina Krog via its installations.
Sleipner handles dry gas transport to Europe and sends unstable oil to Kårstø for processing and export. The area also facilitates onward gas transport from Kollsnes and Nyhamna.
Within the Troll region, platforms A, B and C operate alongside the Fram field’s two subsea templates tied back to Troll C. The extended Troll area contains around 40% of all gas reserves on the NCS.
Earlier this month, Equinor and Wellesley Petroleum entered into an agreement to initiate a joint exploration project on the NCS, aiming to increase high-pressure, high-temperature exploration activity.
