Fresh Barents Sea oil find offers tie-in opportunity for Equinor

June 30, 2025, by Dragana Nikše

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has made an oil discovery at a field it operates in the Barents Sea using a rig owned by Switzerland-based offshore drilling contractor Transocean.

Transocean Enabler rig; Credit: Jan Arne Wold/Equinor

As disclosed, the discovery was made in exploration well 7720/7-DD-1H in the Drivis Tubåen prospect in the Johan Castberg area in the Barents Sea. According to preliminary estimates, the discovery contains 9-15 million barrels of oil.

Together with its partners, Vår Energi and Petoro, Equinor said it would consider the tie-in of the new discovery to the Johan Castberg field. Equinor holds a 46.3% interest in the field, while Vår Energi and Petoro hold 30% and 23.7% interests, respectively.

The well was drilled using the Transocean Enabler drilling rig as an exploratory extension from a production well. The oil was proven in a new segment called the Tubåen formation, 1769 meters below the seabed in 345 meters of water.

The 2016-built Transocean Enabler semi-submersible rig was constructed at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in South Korea as Songa Enabler. This rig is of GVA 4000 NCS design and can accommodate 130 people.

Grete Birgitte Haaland, Equinor’s Senior Vice President for Exploration & Production North, noted: “Only a short time after Johan Castberg came on stream and is producing at full capacity, we have made a new discovery that can provide additional reserves for the field. The Johan Castberg volume base originally estimated at 450–650 million barrels, our clear ambition is to increase the reserves by a another 250–550 million barrels.”

Haaland added that six new exploration wells and continuous exploration activity are planned to achieve this. In parallel, a rapid field expansion is planned for the Isflak discovery made in 2021, with a planned start-up in 2028.

Equinor believes the Barents Sea to be the least explored ocean area on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). Once the field, which is expected to produce for 30 years, was brought on stream in March, the Norwegian player described it as the start of a new era for the area.

Oil production starts at Equinor’s Norwegian field, ushering in ‘new era’ for Barents Sea

Exploration & Production

The plateau production milestone for the field was reached earlier this month. Johan Castberg is now producing about 220,000 boepd, with a loaded tanker departing from the field every three to four days.

According to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, this is the 14th exploration well in production licence 532, which was awarded in the 20th licensing round in 2009.

The new well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned, before the rig continues drilling the second wellbore (development well – gas injector on Drivis) in the multilateral well (MLT). While the well was not formation-tested, data and samples were collected.

“This discovery confirms the continued potential of the Johan Castberg area and demonstrates the value of our infrastructure-led exploration strategy. The newly started field has opened up several opportunities in the Barents Sea, a region that remains largely underexplored, but with a high resource potential,” said Vår Energi’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Torger Rød.

As stated by Equinor, two rigs will drill both production wells and new exploration wells in the areas around Johan Castberg and Goliat going forward. The firm plans to drill one to two exploration wells annually around Johan Castberg.

This follows another milestone – the name reveal for Equinor’s joint venture with Shell. Named Adura, the new company is set to become the largest independent oil and gas producer in the UK North Sea.