Equinor and its partners Petoro and TotalEnergies have made an oil and gas discovery near the Oseberg field in the Norwegian North Sea, with preliminary estimates indicating between 19 million and 50 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.
The discovery was made in exploration well 30/8-7 S Grimsnes, drilled by the Deepsea Bergen rig in production license PL 190, approximately 15 kilometres southwest of the Oseberg Sør platform and 145 kilometers west of Bergen.
Equinor said the partnership is planning a fast, cost-effective development by connecting the discovery to existing subsea infrastructure and producing the hydrocarbons through the Oseberg Sør platform.
The Grimsnes discovery is planned to be tied back to the Stjerne subsea installation, which is already connected to Oseberg Sør.
“This confirms that the area around the Oseberg field remains very attractive. We plan to quickly tie the discovery back to existing subsea facilities and produce the volumes through the Oseberg Sør platform. By making use of already paid for infrastructure we achieve good resource utilization and competitive barrels”, said Frode Skarstein, senior vice president for Exploration and Production West at Equinor.
The well was drilled in water depths of 96 meters, with preliminary recoverable volumes estimated at between 3 million and 8 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalent.
Equinor operates PL 190 with a 50% interest, alongside Petoro with 40% and TotalEnergies EP Norge with 10%.
The license was awarded in 1993 and also contains the Tune field, which began production in 2002. Grimsnes is located approximately 20 kilometers south of Tune, in the southern part of the license.
The Oseberg Sør platform began production in 2000 and serves several structures south of the main Oseberg field. The development comprises an integrated drilling, accommodation and production platform supported by a steel jacket.
The J, K and Stjerne subsea installations are connected to the platform, with oil transported through the Oseberg Field Centre and the Oseberg Transport System to the Sture terminal.
Equinor plans to drill approximately 200 near-field exploration wells and deliver around 75 subsea developments by 2035 as it seeks to sustain production through discoveries close to existing infrastructure.