Fresh oil & gas discovery springs up in North Sea

August 25, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has made a new oil and gas discovery in the North Sea, using one of COSL Drilling Europe’s semi-submersible rigs.

COSL Innovator; Source: Serica Energy via LinkedIn

This oil and gas find in the Fram area, drilled with the COSL Innovator rig nine kilometers north of the Troll field in the Norwegian North Sea, was found in the exploration well 35/11-31 S in production license 090, which encountered petroleum in two reservoirs. While one of the discoveries consists of both oil and gas, the other one is just gas.

The encountered resources are estimated at between 0.1 and 1.1 million standard cubic meters, with reservoir properties assessed as moderate to very good. The preliminary name of the discovery is F-South. The licensees, Equinor (45%), Vår Energi (40%), and Inpex Idemitsu Norge (15%), will consider tying the discovery back to existing or future infrastructure.

Geir Sørtveit, Equinor’s Senior Vice President for Exploration & Production West on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, commented: “These are discoveries in an interesting area with a well-developed infrastructure.

“In recent years, we have made several discoveries in the neighbourhood, and we plan to further explore the area. We believe that we may encounter more, both oil and gas.”

According to Equinor, the latest hydrocarbon find joins other discoveries made in this area since 2019, including: Echino South, Swisher, Røver North, Blasto, Toppand, Kveikje, Røver South, Heisenberg, Crino/Mulder, Rhombi, and Ringand.

View on Offshore-energy.

The Norwegian giant emphasizes that Echino South and Blasto, together with two smaller discoveries from previous years, form the basis for the development of the Fram South subsea project, for which the plan for development and operation (PDO) was submitted to the authorities in June 2025.