Rystad: 2019 shaping up to be Norway’s best exploration year since 2014

Equinor on Wednesday announced an oil and gas discovery near the Fram field in the North Sea off Norway. Energy intelligence firm Rystad Energy has said that this has been the best year for discoveries on the Norwegian Continental Shelf since 2014. 

Equinor said on Wednesday that the recoverable resources were estimated at 6-16 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalent, corresponding to 38-100 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Commenting on Equinor’s oil and gas discovery near the Fram field in the Norwegian North Sea, Palzor Shenga, senior analyst at Rystad Energy said: “After a string of recent discoveries, 2019 is shaping up to be the most successful exploration year since 2014 on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).”

Rystad Energy estimates the discovery to hold recoverable resources of around 70 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe). This will bring cumulative discoveries year-to-date to 520 million boe, surpassing the 518 million boe found in 2018.

“Norway could see total discoveries reaching 650 million barrels of oil equivalent by year-end with decent success in ongoing exploration drilling campaigns,” Shenga added.

Aker BP has been the most successful driller thus far in 2019, with 41% of discovered volumes. Equinor comes in second, with 23% of total volumes. Lundin, Vaar Energi, and Wellesley Petroleum share the final place on the podium with 4% each.

“While the Barents Sea has been Norway’s most successful in the past seven years in terms of total volumes discovered, the number of discoveries and the volumes found prove that the mature parts of the NCS still have a lot to offer. The proximity of these discoveries to existing infrastructure makes them lucrative,” noted Shenga.

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