Norwegian Offshore Directorate announced that Harbour Energy, along with its partners Sval and Aker BP, has made a gas discovery at well 15/9-25 in the North Sea, building on previous findings from two other exploration wells.

This discovery, which lies northeast of the Sleipner area, approximately 210km west of Stavanger, has been estimated to hold between one and three billion standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent.

Drilled using the Noble Integrator rig to a measured depth of 2,872m below the sea, the well 15/9-25, which is the first in production licence 1138 awarded during the 2021 Awards in Pre-defined Areas (APA).

The primary exploration target for well 15/9-25 was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic and Triassic reservoir rocks within the Hugin and Skagerrak formations.

The secondary target aimed to delineate gas previously proven in wells 16/7-2 and 16/7-10, located in the Ty Formation from the Palaeocene.

This well identified a 22m thick aquiferous sand layer with very good reservoir quality in the Hugin Formation and a 10m gas column in a 118m-thick sandstone reservoir with very good reservoir quality in the Ty Formation.

Harbour and its partners are now assessing the technical and financial viability of connecting the discovery to the existing infrastructure in the vicinity.

The gas/water contact was found at 2,330m below sea level, aligning with previous findings.

Although well 15/9-25 was not formation-tested, extensive data acquisition and sampling were conducted.

The well was terminated in the Smith Bank Formation in the Upper Triassic.

Last month, Harbour Energy signed a five-year master service agreement (MSA) with EthosEnergy.

The deal positions EthosEnergy as the primary service provider for the maintenance and support of Harbour Energy’s light industrial gas turbines across three North Sea production assets in the UK sector.