Aker BP and Equinor’s latest North Sea wildcat drilling yields no hydrocarbon find

August 11, 2026, by Melisa Cavcic

Norway’s oil and gas company Aker BP and its compatriot state-owned partner, Equinor, have come up dry in their latest North Sea exploration well on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

Aker BP and Equinor have drilled a dry exploration well, 15/6-17, in the Svarteknippa prospect located in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, 15 kilometers west of the Solveig field and 220 kilometers west of Stavanger.

This is the first exploration well drilled in production licence 979, which was awarded through awards in pre-defined areas (APA) in 2018. The well was drilled by Saipem’s Scarabeo 8 semi-submersible rig.

While the objective of the well was to prove hydrocarbons from the Middle Jurassic in the Hugin and Sleipner formations, the secondary exploration target was to prove a reservoir and hydrocarbons in the Draupne and Heather formations.

The well encountered the Vestland Group near the primary exploration target, with a thickness of 97 meters, of which 8 meters were sandstone with moderate to poor reservoir quality. Weak hydrocarbon indicators were recorded.

Near the secondary exploration target, the well encountered 191 meters of the Draupne Formation and 104 meters of the Heather Formation; however, reservoir rocks were not proven in these two formations.

The well 15/6-17 was drilled to a vertical depth of 3,704 meters below sea level and was terminated in the Smith Bank Formation in the Triassic.

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Data acquisition was carried out, which included securing a 54-meter-long core in the Vestland Group. The water depth at the site is 102 meters, and the well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate emphasized: “In recent years, exploration activity in the central part of the North Sea has been characterised by minor discoveries close to existing infrastructure.

“The area is defined as mature. Aker BP and Equinor have been the dominant exploration companies in this area.”

While the two partners had not discovered commercial hydrocarbon quantities in this exploration quest, they had better luck in other drilling endeavors, as illustrated by Equinor’s double oil and gas win in the Norwegian North Sea earlier this year.