Equinor discovers oil near Snorre in North Sea

Equinor Energy AS made a commercial oil discovery in the Snorre area of the North Sea and plans for a "rapid and cost‑effective development" through the Snorre A platform, the operator said in a release Mar. 2

Preliminary estimates place the size of discovery, in the Omega South Alfa prospect and 1.6 km east of Snorre field, at 4-14.2 million std cu m of recoverable oil equivalent (25–89 MMboe). 

A separate release from the Norwegian Offshore Directorate said the well (34/4-19 S), the 14th in the license, was drilled by the Deepsea Atlantic rig in 381 m of water to 3,872 m TVD and 4,090 m MD subsea. It was terminated in the Drake formation. The objective was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Brent Group.

The well encountered oil in sandstone layers with a total thickness of 224.5 m, 127 m of which were sandstone layers with moderate to good reservoir properties. The oil-water contact was not encountered. The well was not formation-tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling were carried out.

The well will be temporarily plugged.

Development planning prior to discovery 

Equinor said Omega South is a pilot for a faster and more cost-efficient approach to developing subsea fields, one in which the partners plan field development prior to discovery with an aim to bring new discoveries into production in 2-3 years. As part of the effort, the well was drilled through a foundation which will be reused along with parts of the exploration well during development, the operator said.

Snorre field, producing since 1992, has continued to receive new volumes, most recently with start‑up of the Snorre Expansion Project in 2020. The subsea development added 200 million bbl and extended the field’s lifetime beyond 2040. The Omega South discovery can now be tied into this infrastructure.

Equinor is operator at PL 057 (31%) with partners Petoro AS (30%), Harbour Energy Norge AS (24.5%), INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS (9.6%), and Vår Energi ASA (4.9%).