Equinor announced on October 8 that it and its partners had found gas in the North Sea at Gullfaks South, 190 kilometres northwest of Bergen.
The company puts recoverable volumes at 3.3 million to 10.3 million barrels of oil equivalent, or 0.5 million to 1.6 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalent.
Well 34/10-D-4 BH was drilled as a sidetrack in connection with a production well using the Askeladden jack-up rig. The discovery falls under the Gullfaks production licence, owned by Equinor Energy with 51 per cent, Petoro with 30 per cent and OMV Norge with 19 per cent.
Gunnar Egge, Equinor’s vice president for the Gullfaks field, described the drilling approach as cost-effective. “These will be profitable barrels that can help maintain activity and production on the Gullfaks field,” he said.
The Norwegian Offshore Directorate’s wellbore record gives a water depth of 134 metres and a measured depth of 5,515 metres.
Drilling began on September 3 and was completed on September 16, when the wellbore was plugged.
Gullfaks South began production in 1998 and has 13 subsea templates tied back to the Gullfaks A and Gullfaks C facilities. Gas from the field is processed at Gullfaks C before being exported via Statpipe to the Kårstø terminal.
In February, Equinor reported a separate oil and gas discovery at the Granat prospect in production licence 277, also northwest of Bergen. The licensees were considering a tie-back to existing infrastructure in the Gullfaks area.
