DNO Finds Oil and Gas in Northern North Sea
March 26, 2025
Norwegian oil and gas operator DNO has made an important oil and gas discovery in Northern North Sea license PL1182 S, using Odfjell Drilling’s Deepsea Yantai semi-submersible rig.
The discovery was made in Paleocene injectite sandstones of excellent reservoir quality with preliminary estimates of gross recoverable resources in the range of 39 to 75 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), with a mean of 55 MMboe.
The Kjøttkake exploration well encountered a 41-meter oil column and a 9-meter gas column. A sidetrack drilled horizontally 1,350 meters westwards along the reservoir in the Sotra Formation confirmed the presence of the oil column throughout the discovery.
DNO holds the operated interest of 40% in the license PL1182 S, with partners Aker BP (30%), Concedo (15%) and Japex Norge (15%).
The wells were drilled using Odfjell Drilling’s Deepsea Yantai semi-submersible rig.
“We are on a hot streak in Norway. Our latest and most exciting discovery this year, Kjøttkake, is close to existing infrastructure in the Troll-Gjøa area, and we will be relentless in pursuing its commercialization,” said Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani.
Located 27 kilometers northwest of the Troll C platform and 44 kilometers southwest of the Gjøa platform, Kjøttkake is DNO’s tenth discovery since 2021 in the Troll-Gjøa exploration and development hotspot, following Røver Nord, Kveikje, Ofelia, Røver Sør, Heisenberg, Carmen, Kyrre, Cuvette and Ringand.
The company has also racked up discoveries in other parts of the Norwegian Continental Shelf, including Norma (2023) and Othello (2024), both play-opening finds and both operated by DNO.
Following its exploration success, DNO has stepped up purchases of producing assets to balance its Norwegian portfolio and help fund coming developments.
In early March, DNO announced the transformative acquisition of Sval Energi Group, which will increase North Sea 2P reserves from 48 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) to 189 million boe post-closing and 2C resources from 144 million boe to 246 million boe, pro forma figures as of year-end 2024.
The acquisition, which is expected to close by mid-year, will turn the North Sea into the biggest contributor to company’s net production with some 60% of the total, with the balance coming predominantly from two operated fields, Tawke and Peshkabir, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
