Equinor Finds Oil in Norwegian Sea

COSL Innovator drilling rig (Credit: COSL)

Equinor and its partners have proven oil in a wildcat well in the Norwegian Sea, drilled by COSL's COSL Innovator semi-submersible drilling rig.

The wildcat well 6507/8-12 S, in production license 124 B, tested the ‘Othello South’ prospect, 4 kilometers north of the Heidrun field and 240 kilometers west of Sandnessjøen.

Preliminary estimates indicate the size of the discovery is between 0.15 and 2 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent. This corresponds to 0.95 – 12.6 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.

Production license 124 B was carved out from production license 124 on 30 September 2024.

Nine exploration wells have already been drilled in production license 124, and this is the first exploration well in production license 124 B.

It is operated by Equinor, with 25.69% working interest, along with partners Petoro with 36.39%, ConocoPhillips Skandinavia with 27.91%, and Vår Energi with 10% stakes.

The licensees will assess the discovery with a view toward further developing the northern part of the Heidrun field.

COSL’s COSL Innovator drilling rig, which was used for the drilling operation, is now moving on to drill well 6610/7-U-3 in production license 1014 in the Norwegian Sea.

The objective of the well is to verify potential shallow gas deposits.