Norwegian oil and gas firms Equinor and Aker BP have made a gas and condensate discovery close to the operating Balder field in the North Sea, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, the regulator of the industry in Norway, said on Monday.
Equinor and Aker BP had an exploration well drilled in a production license 16 kilometers (10 miles) northwest of the Balder field and 205 kilometers (127 miles) west of Stavanger, a major oil services hub in Norway.
Preliminary estimates indicate the size of the discovery is between 0.1 and 2.1 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent, the Norwegian regulator said.
The licensees are now reviewing the result from the well and the other wells previously drilled in the license to consider further exploration potential in the production license.
Norway, Equinor, Aker BP, and other producers in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) continue to pursue drilling and development in areas close to existing infrastructure to fast-track potential new projects by tie-backs to operational platforms.
The country and its producers are vying to maintain a high level of oil and gas production and exports for at least another decade, to boost Norway’s economy and deliver oil and gas to Europe.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine cut off most Russian gas to Europe, Norway has become the single biggest supplier of gas to the EU and the UK.
Equinor, in particular, plans to drill 20 to 30 exploration wells every year as it aims to sustain current production levels all the way through 2035, the company said in January when it was awarded 35 new production licenses on the Norwegian continental shelf in Norway’s tender for mature exploration areas.
Norway produces more than 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, with oil and gas nearly equally divided at 2 million boepd each.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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