Equinor and its partners have discovered oil in the North Sea near the Snøre field. The discovery is in the “Omega Sur Alpha“ prospect, about 200 kilometers northwest of Bergen. Preliminary estimates indicate between 25 and 89 million barrels of recoverable resources, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate announced.
This corresponds to a volume of between 4 and 14.2 million standard cubic meters of oil equivalent. The field is in the production license 057, granted in 1979, and the well 34/4-19 S is the 14th drilled within its boundaries.
Oil was discovered in layers of the Brent Group
The well reached the oil deposits in sandstone layers of the Middle Jurassic Brent Group. The total thickness of the affected oil-bearing layers is 224.5 meters, with 127 meters of moderate to good reservoir properties.
The exploration well was drilled with the Deepsea Atlantic platform in a water depth of 381 meters. After its completion, it will be temporarily sealed and decommissioned. No test drilling was carried out in the well, but a significant amount of data and samples were collected.
Planning to connect to Snore A
Equinor is the operator of the license, and the other participants are Petoro, Harbour Energy, INPEX Idemitsu and Vår Energi. The companies will explore the possibility of connecting the field to existing infrastructure in the Tampen area.
“The new discovery will be quickly connected to existing subsea facilities and will be produced via the Snore A platform“, said Equinor Senior Vice President Erik Gustav Kirkemo.
According to him, the fact that much of the infrastructure has already been built and paid for makes future volumes competitive. The next step is for the license partners to assess the technical and economic options for developing and connecting the field.
Sources: reuters.com, bairdmaritime.com