Equinor strikes oil at Telesto well in Norway’s North Sea

Equinor has made an oil discovery from the Visund A platform in the Telesto exploration well in the North Sea, offshore Norway. According to Equinor, the resources are estimated at 12-28 million barrels of recoverable oil.

The well was drilled about 2.5 kilometers east of the Visund A platform and 155 kilometers west of Florø in the northern part of the North Sea. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has said the discovery is a minor one. Despite this, the nearby infrastructure will enable the development of the discovery.

Nick Ashton, Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration in Norway and the UK said: “We are pleased to have made a new discovery on Equinor-operated acreage on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). These are profitable barrels that can be quickly tied in to existing infrastructure and generate substantial revenues for society. Infrastructure-led exploration is an important part of our roadmap for the NCS.”

The Telesto exploration well is drilled from the Visund A platform in the Tampen area in the northern North Sea. It is well number 34/8-18 S in production license 120. Telesto was spudded on February 9.

“We have a well-developed infrastructure that enables high generation of value in the North Sea. We have set ourselves an ambitious goal of sustaining high production from the NCS for decades, and discoveries like this are essential towards this end. It will be natural to tie in the resources to the Visund A platform,” says Gunnar Nakken, Equinor’s senior vice president for Operations West.

The well 34/8-18 S was drilled from the Visund A platform, which will now drill development wells on the Visund field.

Geological data have been acquired for further analysis, and the well has been plugged and abandoned. Equinor will now, together with partners Petoro, ConocoPhillips and Repsol, consider how to develop this discovery, Equinor said.