Barents Sea prospect ends up being dry

February 19, 2026, by Melisa Cavcic

Norwegian state-owned oil and gas giant Equinor has conducted drilling activities at a wildcat well in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway with one of COSL Drilling Europe’s semi-submersible rigs. This well did not yield commercial quantities of hydrocarbons.

Following the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority’s consent for exploration drilling in block 7018/5 in the Barents Sea’s production license 1236, Equinor and its partners have drilled a dry well on the Vikingskipet prospect, also known as the well 7018/5-2. The prospect, which lies in a water depth of 308 meters, was drilled with the COSL Prospector rig.

The well’s primary exploration target was to prove petroleum in Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks in the upper part of the Tubåen Formation. The wildcat’s secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic to Upper Triassic reservoir rocks in the Nordmela Formation, the lower part of the Tubåen Formation and the Fruholmen Formation.

The exploration well was drilled about 190 kilometers west of Hammerfest and about 140 kilometers southwest of the Snøhvit field. This is the first exploration well in the production licence, which was awarded in 2024 (APA 2023), with licensees being Equinor (operator), Vår Energi, and Petoro.

According to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, operational challenges during drilling in the Stø and Nordmela formations resulted in a technical sidetrack. The well encountered the Tubåen Formation in the primary exploration target with a total thickness of 104 meters, 25 meters of which were sandstone layers with poor to moderate reservoir quality.

The wildcat hit the Nordmela Formation in the secondary exploration target with a total thickness of 643 meters, 60 meters of which were sandstone layers with poor to moderate reservoir quality. The well also encountered the Stø Formation with an overall thickness of 272 meters, 233 meters of which were sandstone layers.

The well 7018/5-2 was drilled to a vertical depth of 1,880 meters below sea level and was terminated in the Tubåen Formation in the Lower Jurassic. The secondary exploration targets in the lower Tubåen and Fruholmen formations were not reached. The well has been plugged and abandoned.

While Equinor did not find any commercial hydrocarbons in this well, the firm had more luck during the recent drilling activities at another Norwegian well, where an oil and gas discovery was made some 190 kilometers northwest of Bergen.