Page 14 - EurOil Week 06 2021

EurOil PERFORMANCE EurOil

Norway hails first oil

and gas find of 2021

NORWAY NORWAY has hailed its first oil and gas discov- The find was made in waters 349 metres
ery of 2021, near the Troll gas field in the North deep. The West Hercules semi-submersible rig
Results in the Barents Sea. used to drill the wells will go on to sink the first
Sea have been less The Rover North find was made by state- of Equinor’s planned wells at PL 090.
encouraging. owned Equinor and its partners DNO, Welles- Equinor operates PL 923 with a 40% position,
ley Petroleum and Petoro at production licence while its three partners each have 20% shares.
(PL) 923, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate
(NPD) said on February 5. Equinor said sepa- More Barents Sea disappointment
rately that the find was 44-69mn barrels of oil Equinor’s success in the North Sea comes weeks
equivalent (boe) in size, with DNO adding that after another disappointment in the frontier Bar-
it was “well above” expectations.” ents Sea.
“The partners are considering fast-track Sweden’s Lundin Energy reported on Janu-
development of the discovery with tie-back to ary 26 drilling a dry well in the southern Barents
nearly Troll area infrastructure, as well as addi- Sea. It aimed to prove hydrocarbons in Pale-
tional drilling to test other identified prospects ocene-aged sandstones at the Bask prospect at
on the licence,” DNO said. PL 533B, 35 km north-west of its Alta discovery.
Troll, also operated by Equinor, is situated “The targeted formation contained [a] poorly
10 km south-east of PL 923. There have been a developed reservoir, and although traces of
number of discoveries in the area in recent years, hydrocarbons were found, it is not considered
including Echino in 2019 and Swisher in 2020. commercial and the well is classed as dry,” Lun-
“Recoverable oil equivalent from these three din said.
discoveries can already measure against the total Equinor too came up dry in the Barents Sea’s
production from fields like Valemon, Gudrun Spissa prospect last December. A month earlier,
and Gina Krog,” Equinor said. Lundin was unlucky at a well east of the Johan
Beyond additional drilling at PL923, the Castberg field. Equinor and the UK’s Spirit
company also intends to drill wells to target the Energy also drilled dry wells in the region last
matured Blasto and Apodida prospects at the summer.
neighbouring PL090 permit as well. Lundin has a 40% operating stake in PL 553B,
Equinor identified Rover North after drill- while partners Aker BP and Wintershall Dea
ing an exploration well and an appraisal well, own 25% interests.
with the aim of proving petroleum in Middle These recent results do not bode well for
Jurassic and Early Jurassic rock. The 31/1-2 S the success of Norway’s latest frontier licens-
exploration well was completed to a 3,440-metre ing round, launched in November. Authorities
vertical depth, and encountered a 145-metre gas have offered rights to 136 blocks in nine frontier
column and a 24-metre oil column. The 31/1-2 zones, of which eight are in the Barents Sea. The
A appraisal well was sunk to a depth of 3,452 deadline for applications is February 23 and
metres and found 12-metre and 17-metre oil awards are expected sometime in the second
columns. quarter.™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 06 11•February•2021