New oil discovery springs up in Norwegian waters

Norwegian oil and gas player Aker BP has made a new oil discovery in the Norwegian Sea, off the coast of Norway, with a semi-submersible rig owned by Italy’s Saipem.

After securing a drilling permit for the wells 6507/5-13 S and 6507/5-13 A in production license 212, Aker BP (30%) and its partners – Equinor (30%), Wintershall Dea Norge, now Harbour Energy, (25%), and ORLEN Upstream Norway (15%) – have made an oil discovery in the so-called E prospect near the Skarv field.

The wells 6507/5-13 S and A were drilled 6 kilometers southwest of the floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) Skarv, which is part of the Skarv Unit. These are the ninth and tenth exploration wells in this production license, which was awarded in 1996.

According to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, the objective of the well 6507/5-13 S was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks in the Fangst and Båt groups, confirm the reservoir quality, and delineate a potential discovery.

The well encountered a 14-meter oil column in the Garn Formation in 43 meters of sandstone with moderate reservoir quality. While the oil/water contact was encountered at 3,702 meters below sea level, the other formations in the Fangst and Båt groups were aquiferous.

Furthermore, the well 6507/5-13 S encountered hydrocarbons from the Early Cretaceous (Apt/Alba) in multiple sandstone layers with moderate reservoir quality. The oil/water contact was estimated at 3,414 meters below sea level. The wildcat well 6507/5-13 S, which was drilled to a measured depth of 4,022 meters and a vertical depth of 3,998 meters below sea level, was terminated in the Åre Formation.

On the other hand, the well 6507/5-13 A, which was drilled to delineate the discovery in the Early Cretaceous, proved a reservoir of moderate quality saturated with water. The well 6507/5-13 S, drilled to a measured depth of 3,607 meters and a vertical depth of 3,465 meters below sea level, was terminated in the Melke Formation.

While the wells were not formation-tested, extensive volumes of data and samples were collected. The water depth at the site is 383 meters, and both wells, drilled with Saipem’s Scarabeo 8 semi-submersible rig, have been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate highlights that the preliminary calculations of the size of the discovery made in the Garn Formation are between 0.48 and 1.11 million standard cubic meters of recoverable oil equivalent, corresponding to 3-7 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.

Moreover, a minor discovery was also made in the Early Cretaceous, with the size estimated at 0.16-0.32 million standard cubic meters of recoverable oil equivalent, which corresponds to 1-2 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. The licensees will consider the discovery in the Garn Formation for a potential tie-back to the FPSO Skarv.

With the launch of the award in pre-defined areas 2025 (APA 2025) round for oil and gas exploration activity, Norway has enlarged the predefined areas with 68 blocks in the Barents Sea and 8 blocks in the Norwegian Sea since APA 2024. 

More oil and gas exploration activity is currently on the cards in the Norwegian Sea, where Equinor recently started production from its gas and condensate project, designed to include multiple discoveries developed in two phases.