Equinor finds hydrocarbons at Norwegian Sea wildcat with Transocean rig

September 1, 2025, by Dragana Nikše

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has made an oil and light condensate gas discovery in a wildcat well offshore Norway using a rig from the fleet of Switzerland-based offshore drilling contractor Transocean.

Transocean Encourage rig; Source: Transocean

The 6506/12-PB-3 H well tested the Smørbukk Midt prospect, located between Smørbukk and Smørbukk South about 250 kilometres southwest of the town of Brønnøysund. The discovery is envisaged to be tied back to Smørbukk South, which is part of the Åsgard field.

According to initial calculations, the discovery holds 1–3 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent, or roughly 6.3–18.9 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. License partners are Equinor as the operator, Vår Energi, Petoro, and TotalEnergies EP Norge.

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) states that this is the 15th exploration well in production license 094, which was awarded in 1984 as part of the 8th licensing round on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The drilling permit was secured in late June.

The well was drilled by the Transocean Encourage drilling rig, which will now continue the drilling of production well 6506/12-PB-3 AH in the Garn formation at the same location.

The 2016-built Transocean Encourage rig is of GVA 4000 NCS design and can accommodate up to 130 people. This is a sixth-generation, harsh environment semi-submersible rig with automated drilling control specially designed for operations on the NCS.

As disclosed by NOD, the well’s primary exploration target was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Ile and Garn formations (the Fangst Group). The secondary target was to collect data in reservoir rocks from the Late Cretaceous (the Lysing Formation).

An approximately 54-meter condensate/light oil column was encountered in Garn and 66 meters in Ille, in sandstone with moderate to good reservoir properties. The former reservoir was about 94 meters thick, and the latter 75, with no petroleum/water contact encountered in either.

The well was drilled to 4,991 and 4,218 metres below sea level of measured and vertical depths, respectively, and was terminated in the Ror Formation in the Middle Jurassic. It was not formation-tested.

Discovered in 1981 and producing oil, condensate, and gas, Åsgard is a field in the central part of the Norwegian Sea with a water depth of around 240–300 metres. It comprises Midgard, Smørbukk, Smørbukk South, and Smørbukk North deposits.

The start of oil and gas production at Smørbukk North was announced in December 2024. Additionally, the Mikkel gas field and the Morvin and Trestakk oil fields are also tied into Åsgard’s infrastructure.

The field has been developed with subsea wells tied back to a production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO), Åsgard A, and a floating, semi-submersible facility for gas and condensate processing, Åsgard B. Furthermore, the gas center is connected to a storage vessel for condensate, Åsgard C.

According to Equinor, this is one of the most advanced and complex subsea facilities ever built, with more than 70 wells distributed across 23 subsea templates. With a size of 20 x 60 kilometres, the area is larger than the city of Rome.

This discovery comes on top of another one Equinor made in the North Sea last week, encountering petroleum in two reservoirs. The preliminary name of the discovery is F-South, and it was drilled with the COSL Innovator rig nine kilometers north of the Troll field in the Norwegian North Sea.