Another oil discovery emerges from Norwegian waters

January 19, 2026, by Melisa Cavcic

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

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD), which shed light on an oil find Equinor and its partners – Petoro, ConocoPhillips Skandinavia, and Vår Energi – proved in the wildcat well 6507/8-12 S in the Norwegian Sea, explains that the well tested the Othello South prospect, 4 kilometers north of the Heidrun field and 240 kilometers west of Sandnessjøen.

This wildcat well is the first in production license 124 B, which was carved out from production license 124 in September 2024, where 9 exploration wells have already been drilled. The licensees will assess the discovery with a view toward further developing the northern part of the Heidrun field.

The well’s objective was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Early Jurassic (Åre Formation) and Late Triassic (Grey Beds). The wildcat well 6507/8-12 S encountered multiple oil-bearing sandstone layers in the Åre Formation, which has an overall thickness of 208 meters.

The well proved an oil column totaling about 14 meters in the upper part of the Åre Formation, in sandstone with good to very good reservoir quality. In addition, the well encountered oil-bearing sand with poor to moderate reservoir quality in the deeper parts of the formation.

The volume has not yet been estimated for this level, which is considered to be a potential upside. The oil/water contact was not encountered. The wildcat was not formation-tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling were carried out.

The well 6507/8-12 S was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,477 meters below sea level and was terminated in Red Beds from the Triassic. The water depth at the site is 374 meters, and the well will be permanently plugged and abandoned.

The preliminary estimates indicate the size of the discovery is between 0.15 and 2 million standard cubic meters of recoverable oil equivalent, which corresponds to 0.95 – 12.6 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.

The well was drilled by the 2012-built COSL Innovator drilling rig, which 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.

Equinor hired the COSL Innovator rig in August 2023 for a two-year contract, starting in the second quarter of 2025, with available extension options that can expand the assignment by three additional years.