- Equinor has made an oil and gas discovery close to the Troll field in the North Sea. This is the seventh discovery in this area since the autumn of 2019.
According to the company’s website news release on February 9, 2023, 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.
Equinor's exploration strategy
- We will explore for volumes in mature areas, where discoveries can be tied into existing infrastructure to maximise the value of investments we have made over 40 years.
- We will drill between 20 and 30 exploration wells each year moving forward.
- Around 80 per cent of the exploration wells will be drilled in familiar areas near existing infrastructure, but certain new areas and ideas will be tested.
- We will drill wells based on three main criteria: high profitability and low break-even prices, short payback time and low carbon intensity.
- Exploration is crucial in order to maintain the cash flow from the Norwegian continental shelf and to secure the gas volumes necessary to develop a blue hydrogen value chain.
