Wellesley Petroleum and partners confirm gas discovery in North Sea

June 22, 2026, by Nadja Skopljak

An appraisal well drilled by Norway’s oil & gas player Wellesley Petroleum and its partners offshore Norway has confirmed gas/condensate discovery in the North Sea.

Deepsea Yantai, Source: Odfjell Drilling

The well 35/10 16 S is the third well drilled in production license 1148, which is valid from March 11, 2022, up to the same date in 2029, related to the Carmen appraisal.

The well, located in a water depth of 365 meters, was drilled about 25 kilometres northwest of the Troll field and 35 kilometres east of the Kvitebjørn field, with the Deepsea Yantai rig, formerly known as Beacon Atlantic.

Preliminary calculations show that the discovery is between 3.4 and 17 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent (o.e.), which corresponds to between 21 and 107 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Wellesley Petroleum is the operator in production license 1148, with remaining licensees being DNO, Equinor, and Aker BP. Moving forward, the partners will explore opportunities to develop Carmen back to existing infrastructure in the area, with additional wildcat wells to maybe also be drilled.

Deepsea Yantai will now drill appraisal well 35/7-2 on the Afrodite discovery in production license 293.