Equinor makes oil discovery near Fram field in Norwegian North Sea

Equinor and its partner Wellesley have discovered oil in the Troll and Fram area in the Norwegian North Sea, following the drilling of the exploration wells 35/10-7 S and 35/10-7 A.

The discovery was made at the Toppand prospect, 8km west of the producing Fram field, in production licence 630 (PL 630).

Equinor is the operator of the licence with a 50% stake, while the remaining stake is owned by Wellesley.

According to the Norwegian firm, the size of the discovery is expected at 3.3-5.2 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent, or approximately 21–33 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent, based on preliminary calculations.

Equinor exploration and production west operations senior vice president Geir Sørtveit said: “Our exploration activity is central for our ambitions at the Norwegian continental shelf. We are pleased to see that our success in the Troll- and Fram area continues.

“We also regard this discovery to be commercially viable and will consider tying it to the Troll B or Troll C platform. Such discoveries close to existing infrastructure are characterised by high profitability, a short payback period and low CO2 emissions.”

Drilled to a vertical depth of 3,509m below sea level, well 35/10-7 S intersected an oil column of nearly 75m in the lower part of the Ness formation and in the Etive formation.

The exploration well 35/10-7 A came across a 60m sandstone-dominated interval filled with oil in the lower part of the Ness formation and in the Etive formation. The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 3,370m below sea level.

Both the wells were drilled by the West Hercules drilling rig in a water depth of 354m. They have now been plugged permanently and abandoned.

According to Equinor, 35/10-7 S and 35/10-7 A are the second and third exploration wells in PL 630, which was awarded during the 2011 Award in Predefined Areas (APA).

The West Hercules drilling facility will now sail towards the Equinor-operated production licence 1060 in the Norwegian Sea, where it will drill wildcat well 6407/9-13.

In March last year, Equinor and partners Vår Energi, Idemitsu Petroleum and Neptune Energy have made a major oil discovery close to the Fram field.

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