Norwegian oil and gas company Vår Energi said Thursday it had discovered oil at a well in the Barents Sea, north-west of Hammerfest, Norway.
The company made the discovery while drilling the 7122/8-1S Countach well in PL229, near the Goliat production platform.
"The well is currently drilled to 2 958m measured depth and oil has been encountered in the Realgrunnen and Kobbe formations. A sidetrack is planned to better define the size of the discovery," Vår Energi said.
The company said that extensive data was being collected for further assessment and that updated information about volume estimates would be released in due course.
Vår Energi is the operator with a 65% equity share. Equinor holds the remaining 35%. According to available information, the drilling rig used for the Countach drilling is the semi-submersible drilling unit Transocean Enabler.
Elsewhere in Norway, Equinor said Thursday morning that it had discovered oil and gas near the Troll field in the North Sea. The rig used for the operation was the Transocean Spitsbergen.