Equinor’s Norwegian Sea wildcat yields no hydrocarbons

June 16, 2026, by Melisa Cavcic

Norway’s state-owned oil and gas giant Equinor has conducted drilling activities at a wildcat well in the Norwegian Sea with one of Transocean’s semi-submersible rigs. The drilling activity did not result in commercial quantities of hydrocarbons.

Transocean Encourage rig; Source: Transocean

Equinor and its partners have drilled a dry well in the Heidrun Cellar SE prospect, known as the wildcat well 6507/8-D-4 CH, under the Heidrun field in the Norwegian Sea, 240 kilometers west of Sandnessjøen.

This is the tenth wildcat well in production licence 124, which was awarded in 1986, as part of licensing round 10-B, with licensees: Equinor (operator), ConocoPhillips, Petoro, and Vår Energi.

The objective of the well, which was drilled by the Transocean Encourage semi-submersible rig, was to prove petroleum in deeper stratigraphic levels on the Heidrun field, in reservoir rocks from the Early Jurassic (Åre Formation) and Late Triassic (Grey Beds).

The well 6507/8-D-4 CH encountered sandstone layers in the Åre Formation/Grey Beds with an overall thickness of about 161 metres and good to very good reservoir quality. While the well was not formation-tested, data was acquired.

The wildcat well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,910 meters below sea level and was terminated in the Grey Beds from the Late Triassic. The water depth at the site is 357 meters, and the well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

While Equinor did not find any commercial hydrocarbons in this well, the firm had more luck in March 2026, when it made an oil discovery in the Barents Sea, which strengthens the development of Johan Castberg and will be tied into the Norwegian field.

View on Offshore-energy.