North Sea hydrocarbon drilling ops hit a dead end

February 12, 2026, by Melisa Cavcic

Norway’s oil and gas player Vår Energi and its partner, Kistos Energy, have drilled an exploration well in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, which yielded no commercial hydrocarbons.

Ringhorne; Credit: Øyvind Sætre/Vår Energi

While the objective of the well 25/8-C-23 D, known as the Prince Updip prospect in the Balder area, was to prove petroleum in the Skagerrak Formation in the Upper Triassic, the secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in basement rock. Necessary data was collected while drilling the well.

The well encountered the Skagerrak Formation with a thickness of about 127 meters, 18 meters of which were sandstone layers with moderate to good reservoir quality. Certain sandstone layers had hydrocarbon shows.

The prospect, which was drilled about 30 meters into basement rock with the interval having no reservoir properties, is classified as dry with hydrocarbon shows. The well was drilled in production licence 027, from the Ringhorne installation, just over 200 kilometers west of Stavanger.

The license was awarded in 1969, in the second licensing round on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). This is the 13th exploration well drilled within the licence area. The Balder and Ringhorne Øst fields are also located in the licence.

The production licence previously saw exploration activity in 2021, when exploration wells 25/8-20 S, B and C proved hydrocarbons at two levels. The well 25/8-23 D was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,318 meters below sea level, and terminated in basement rock.

The water depth at the site is 129 meters, and the well has now been permanently plugged and abandoned.

Vår Energi recently completed appraisal of an oil discovery in the Barents Sea, confirming reservoir quality and adding recoverable volumes.