The name of the discovery is Røver Sør. According to preliminary estimates the size of the discovery is between 17 and 47 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent, of which the majority is oil.
Equinor is operator of the production licence. The partners are DNO, Wellesley Petroleum and Petoro.
“Discoveries close to existing infrastructure are important to maintain oil and gas production from the Norwegian continental shelf. They need smaller volumes to be profitable and can be put on stream quickly with low carbon emissions. As this discovery is close to the Troll field and other discoveries we have made in the area, we can already now state that it will be commercial,” says Geir Sørtveit, Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration and production west operations.
The two exploration wells of the discovery were drilled by the Transocean Spitsbergen rig.
The six discoveries that Equinor have made earlier in this area are:
- Echino Sør: 2019
- Swisher: 2020
- Røver Nord: 2021
- Blasto: 2021
- Toppand: 2022
- Kveikje: 2022
There is uncertainty as to the size of the discoveries, but an average of the various estimates gives a total volume of around 350 million barrels of oil equivalent, corresponding to a medium-sized Norwegian oil or gas field, and the size of the Aasta Hansteen field in the Norwegian sea.
“Equinor has started field development projects to coordinate the development of these discoveries by utilizing existing infrastructure in collaboration with our partners. This discovery will be part of this work,” says Sørtveit.
The name of the next exploration well in this area is Heisenberg. The results of this well are to be ready in March. More exploration wells are planned in the area later this year.