BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 15. Equinor has announced a new oil and gas discovery near the Fram field in the North Sea, with estimated recoverable resources ranging from 13 to 28 million barrels of oil equivalent, Trend reports.
The discovery was made following the drilling of an exploration well with a sidetrack located approximately 10 kilometers north of the Troll field.
The discovery occurred on the Rhombi prospect, where petroleum was found in both well trajectories. The find includes both oil and gas, with gas accounting for slightly more than half of the total discovery.
Equinor and its partners will now evaluate options for connecting the discovery to existing infrastructure in the region and exploring additional prospects in the area. The company highlighted the strategic significance of this discovery, emphasizing that it was made in one of the North Sea’s core exploration areas, which already has well-established infrastructure for both oil and gas production.
"This is an exciting discovery in one of our core areas that has well-developed infrastructure for both oil and gas," said Geir Sørtveit, Senior Vice President for Exploration & Production West in Norway at Equinor. "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 utilization, strong profitability, and low emissions."
This discovery marks the first new find in the area for 2024, apart from an appraisal well in a previously discovered field. Between 2018 and 2023, a total of 12 discoveries were made in this part of the North Sea.
The exploration well was drilled by the Deepsea Atlantic semi-submersible rig. The license owners involved in the discovery are Equinor Energy AS (45%), Vår Energi ASA (40%), and INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS (15%).
Equinor continues to focus on optimizing the development of these resources, while maintaining a strong commitment to low-emission production strategies as part of its ongoing efforts in the North Sea.