Equinor has announced that it has made an oil and gas discovery close to the Troll field in the North Sea.
The size of the discovery, which was dubbed Røver Sør, is between 17 and 47 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent, according to preliminary estimates, Equinor highlighted in a statement posted on its website. The company pointed out that the two exploration wells of the find were drilled by the Transocean Spitsbergen rig.
Røver Sør is the seventh discovery in the area since the autumn of 2019, Equinor outlined in the statement. The company highlighted that it made the Kveikje and Toppand discoveries in 2022, the Blasto and Røver Nord finds in 2021, the Swisher discovery in 2020 and the Echino Sør find in 2019.
Equinor noted in its statement that there is uncertainty as to the size of the discoveries but added that an average of the various estimates gives a total volume of around 350 million barrels of oil equivalent, which it said corresponds to a medium-sized Norwegian oil or gas field.
The company outlined that the name of the next exploration well in the area is Heisenberg. The results of this well are currently expected to be ready in March, according to Equinor.
“Discoveries close to existing infrastructure are important to maintain oil and gas production from the Norwegian continental shelf,” Geir Sørtveit, Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration and production west operations, said in a company statement.
“They need smaller volumes to be profitable and can be put on stream quickly with low carbon emissions. As this discovery [Røver Sør] is close to the Troll field and other discoveries we have made in the area, we can already now state that it will be commercial,” he added in the statement.
“Equinor has started field development projects to coordinate the development of these discoveries by utilizing existing infrastructure in collaboration with our partners. This discovery will be part of this work,” he went on to note.
Discovery Partners
Chris Elliott, the CEO of Wellesley, which is a partner in the Røver Sør discovery, noted in a company statement that the find is Wellesley’s fifth commercial discovery in its “core Troll area portfolio”.
“The discovery adds further volumes to the area development project, which will improve the economics of all our Troll area fields given the larger resource base over which project costs can be shared,” Elliott said in the statement.
“Røver Sør is located 18km from the Troll B facility, and de-risks additional prospectivity in the PL923 license where we look forward to drilling the Eggen and Litago prospects later this year,” he added.
“With the Toppand and Røver Nord BoK decisions expected in Q1 2023, our attention is now focused on maturing the area development fields towards concept select, together with Equinor as the project operator and our other partners,” Elliott continued.
DNO ASA, another partner in the Røver Sør find, said in a separate company statement that the discovery is DNO’s fourth consecutive exploration success in the Troll-Gjøa area following the 2021 Røver Nord discovery within the same license and the 2022 discoveries of Kveikje and Ofelia.
“One of the largest acreage holders in the Troll-Gjøa area, …[DNO] has scheduled five more exploration wells in this North Sea exploration hotspot during 2023,” DNO said in the statement.
Cornerstone of Norwegian Gas Production
The Troll field contains about 40 percent of total gas reserves on the Norwegian continental shelf and represents “the very cornerstone of Norwegian gas production”, according to Equinor’s website, which highlights that Troll is also one of the largest oil fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and that oil production at the field totaled more than 400,000 barrels per day back in 2002.
The field consists of the main Troll East and Troll West structures in blocks 31/2, 31/3, 31/5 and 31/6 in the North Sea, Equinor’s website shows. Equinor is the operator of the Troll A, B and C platforms and the landfall pipelines and Gassco is the operator for the gas processing plant at Kollsnes on behalf of Gassled, Equinor’s site points out. Equinor is also the technical service provider for Kollsnes operations, the company’s site shows.
To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
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