Equinor, which is the operator of production licence 293 B, has discovered oil and gas close to the Troll and Fram area. Based on preliminary estimates the size of the discovery is between 4 and 8 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent, or 25-50 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.

The licence owners are Equinor (51%), DNO (29%), Idemitsu (10%) and Longboat Energy (10%).

Temporarily called Kveikje, this is the sixth discovery in this area since the autumn of 2019. Up to more than 300 million barrels of oil equivalent were proven in the five former discoveries.

“We are very pleased to make another discovery in this area that we regard to be commercial. As we did with the other discoveries in this area, we will consider tying this discovery to the Troll B or C platform. By utilising the existing infrastructure, we will be able to recover these volumes at a low cost and with low emissions,” says Lill H. Brusdal, Equinor’s vice president for the Troll area.

There were several drilling targets in the exploration well. After Kveikje was discovered, drilling continued to the next target in the upper part of the Cretaceous stratigraphic sequence. Smaller deposits of petroleum were discovered that are considered as non-commercial. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The well was drilled by Deepsea Stavanger.

Plans call for Equinor to drill another exploration well in this area this year.