BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 15. Equinor has
announced a new oil and gas discovery near the Fram field in the
North Sea, with estimated recoverable resources ranging from 13 to
28 million barrels of oil equivalent, Trend reports.
The discovery was made following the drilling of an exploration
well with a sidetrack located approximately 10 kilometers north of
the Troll field.
The discovery occurred on the Rhombi prospect, where petroleum
was found in both well trajectories. The find includes both oil and
gas, with gas accounting for slightly more than half of the total
discovery.
Equinor and its partners will now evaluate options for
connecting the discovery to existing infrastructure in the region
and exploring additional prospects in the area. The company
highlighted the strategic significance of this discovery,
emphasizing that it was made in one of the North Sea’s core
exploration areas, which already has well-established
infrastructure for both oil and gas production.
“This is an exciting discovery in one of our core areas that has
well-developed infrastructure for both oil and gas,” said Geir
Sørtveit, Senior Vice President for Exploration & Production West
in Norway at Equinor. “We are actively exploring in this area and
have made many discoveries here in recent years. We are now working
on how these discoveries can best be developed to achieve good
resource utilization, strong profitability, and low emissions.”
This discovery marks the first new find in the area for 2024,
apart from an appraisal well in a previously discovered field.
Between 2018 and 2023, a total of 12 discoveries were made in this
part of the North Sea.
The exploration well was drilled by the Deepsea Atlantic
semi-submersible rig. The license owners involved in the discovery
are Equinor Energy AS (45%), Vår Energi ASA (40%), and INPEX
Idemitsu Norge AS (15%).
Equinor continues to focus on optimizing the development of
these resources, while maintaining a strong commitment to
low-emission production strategies as part of its ongoing efforts
in the North Sea.
