Norwegian oil and gas player Vår Energi and its partner Equinor have proven oil in an appraisal well in Barents Sea, drilled to delineate the Countach discovery, which is now being considered for tie-back to the nearby floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) Goliat.
The appraisal well 7122/8-2 S in the Barents Sea resulted in the preliminary estimate of the size of the discovery is between 1.6 and 8.3 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent. This corresponds to 10-52 million barrels.
The appraisal well was drilled by the COSL Prospector in the same production license as Goliat. This was the tenth exploration well in this licence.
The licensees are considering tying the discovery back to existing infrastructure on Goliat field.
Production licence 229 was awarded in 1997, in the Barents Sea Project 97, which was a supplementary round for the Barents Sea. Vår Energi is the operator with 65% working interest, with partner Equinor with 35% share.
Vår Energi is active in the area surrounding Goliat, and is continuing to explore in production licences 229 and 1131.