Equinor and its partners Petoro and TotalEnergies have made an oil and gas discovery near Norway’s Oseberg field, with preliminary estimates indicating recoverable resources of 19 million to 50 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The discovery was made in exploration well 30/8-7 S Grimsnes, drilled under production licence PL 190 by the Deepsea Bergen rig.

The well is located about 15 kilometres southwest of the Oseberg Sør platform and 145 kilometres west of Bergen.

The partnership plans to pursue a fast, cost-effective development by connecting the discovery to existing subsea facilities and producing the resources through the Oseberg Sør platform.

“This confirms that the area around the Oseberg field remains very attractive. We plan to quickly tie the discovery back to existing subsea facilities and produce the volumes through the Oseberg Sør platform. By making use of already paid for infrastructure we achieve good resource utilisation and competitive barrels”, says Frode Skarstein, senior vice president for Exploration and Production West in Equinor.

Norway supplies around 20 per cent of Europe's oil needs and 30 per cent of its gas requirements, making its production important to European energy security.

However, output from existing fields is declining as they mature, increasing the need for exploration and development of smaller discoveries near established infrastructure.

Equinor plans to drill 200 near-field exploration wells and deliver around 75 subsea developments towards 2035 to help sustain production and maintain reliable energy supplies.

“To bring these discoveries on stream, we must radically change how we plan and develop subsea projects. Our aim is to halve both costs and the time from discovery to production through simpler and faster processes, more standardisation, repeatable solutions and more extensive use of industry standards. We expect the partnership to make an investment decision for Grimsnes as early as next summer, with production within three years,” says Gunnar Nakken, senior vice president for projects and subsea on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Grimsnes is likely to be developed using two or three wells connected to a standard four-slot subsea template. Equinor said the discovery would be advanced rapidly towards a development decision, with procurement of subsea production equipment planned for early next year, ahead of formal project approval.

The use of standardised equipment would allow it to be redeployed elsewhere if the project is not sanctioned by the partnership or approved by the authorities.

Equinor aims to maintain production of 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day on the Norwegian continental shelf in 2035, with around 70 per cent expected to come from new wells and developments. -OGN/TradeArabia News Service