Equinor discovers oil near North Sea Fram field

Equinor Energy AS and partners have made a commercial oil and gas discovery in the Troll-Fram area in the northern North Sea. The licensees will consider tie-back to other discoveries and existing infrastructure in the area. Volumes are estimated at 9-35 MMboe, mostly oil.

One exploration well and a sidetrack (35/11-26 S and 35/11-26 A) were drilled in the Crino-Mulder prospect about 4km west of Fram field and 130 km northwest of Bergen.

The well was drilled by the Deepsea Stavanger drilling rig in water depth of 356 m. Extensive data acquisition and sampling has been carried out.

Exploration targets

The primary exploration target for well 35/11-26 S was to prove petroleum in sandstone in the Heather formation from the Late Jurassic and the Brent Group from the Middle Jurassic, as well as to investigate reservoir properties in the Cook formation from the Early Jurassic.

The secondary exploration target was to collect reservoir data in the Lista formation from the Palaeocene.

The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 3,409 m and a measured depth of 3,770 m subsea. It was terminated in the Amundsen formation from the Early Jurassic. It encountered a 7-m gas column and a 26-m oil column in the Heather formation, in sandstone layers totaling 33 m with moderate to good reservoir quality. The oil-water contact was not encountered.

The Brent Group and the Cook formation were water-filled with moderate to good reservoir quality.

The secondary exploration target in the Lista Formation was not encountered.

Well 35/11-26 A was drilled to a vertical depth of 3,000 m and a measured depth of 3,421 m subsea. It was terminated in the Heather formation from the Late Jurassic. The well encountered sandstones of moderate to good reservoir quality in the Heather formation; the reservoir was aquiferous.

Oil and gas were also proven in shallower intra-Heather sandstones in both wells.

Equinor is the operator of production license 90 with 45% interest. Partners are Vår Energi ASA (25%), INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS (15%), and Neptune Energy Norge AS (15%).

The rig will now drill exploration well 30/11-15 in production license 035 in the North Sea, where Equinor is the operator.