Equinor has announced the discovery of oil and gas near the Fram field in the North Sea, estimated at 13–28 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The exploration well, with a sidetrack, was drilled approximately 10km north of the Troll field, revealing petroleum in both well trajectories.
The discovery, made in the Rhombi prospect, includes both oil and gas, with slightly more than half being gas.
This marks the first discovery in the area this year, aside from an appraisal well in a previous discovery.
License owners comprising Equinor Energy (45%), Vår Energi (40%) and Inpex Idemitsu Norge (15%) are considering tie-in to existing infrastructure and other prospects in the area.
The exploration well was drilled by the Deepsea Atlantic semi-submersible rig.
Equinor senior vice-president for exploration & production West Norway Geir Sørtveit said: “This is an exciting discovery in one of our core areas that has well-developed infrastructure for both oil and gas. We are actively exploring in this area and have made many discoveries here in recent years.
“We are now working on how these discoveries can best be developed to achieve good resource utilisation, good profitability and low emissions.”
Equinor recently signed an agreement to acquire an 11.8% interest in the Halten East Unit from Sval Energi, raising its total ownership to 69.5%.
The Halten East development in the Norwegian Sea’s Kristin-Åsgard area is a subsea project expected to utilise existing infrastructure and processing capacity at Åsgard B.
Following approval in May 2022, Halten East is on track to commence production in 2025.
Additionally, Equinor has announced a significant expansion of its natural gas portfolio in the US by acquiring additional interests in the Northern Marcellus formation.
The deal involves Equinor purchasing 100% of EQT’s remaining working interest in Northern Marcellus gas units for $1.25bn (Nkr13.64bn).
The Norwegian energy company’s working interest in the assets, primarily operated by Expand Energy, will increase from 25.7% to 40.7%.
