Equinor (formerly Statoil) and partners Lundin and Spirit Energy have struck oil in the PL 167 licence at the Utsira High in the Norwegian North Sea. The discovery is currently estimated to contain 15-35 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.

Nicholas Ashton, Equinor’s senior vice president, Exploration, Norway & UK says this is a good discovery which is expected to be commercial.

“In addition, the results from the drilling indicate an upside potential in this discovery,” Ashton points out.

The Lille Prinsen well is located 200 kilometres west of Stavanger and north-west of the Johan Sverdrup field. The discovery in the well’s main target is estimated to contain 15-35 million barrels of recoverable oil.

There was one additional discovery made with very good reservoir quality over the main discovery, but the volume in this discovery has not been evaluated. The well also appraised the 2004 gas discovery Verdandi and the estimate of 4-11 million recoverable oil. Further work will determine whether these two reservoirs can be commercially developed.

“This discovery has good quality and adds new volumes in an important area of the North Sea. We also see a substantial upside in the licence that we now aim to clarify as soon as possible together with our partners,” says Ashton.

When the full potential of the production licence has been clarified, development will be considered towards the existing infrastructure in the area.