Norway’s Equinor said Aug. 20 it along with partners OMV and Petoro have found oil in the Sputnik exploration well, located northeast of the Wisting discovery, in the Barents Sea.

The well, drilled to a vertical depth of 1,569 m below the seabed by the West Hercules semisubmersible rig, encountered a 15-m oil column in a Triassic sandstone reservoir, Equinor said in a news release. Fluid samples contain light oil and water.

Recoverable resources are preliminarily estimated at 20-65 million barrels of oil, the company said.

“The geology in the Barents Sea is complex, and more work lies ahead to determine commerciality,” Nick Ashton, Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration in Norway and the UK, said in the release. “But this discovery shows that persistence and our ability to learn from previous well results does pay off.”

Source: Equinor
Source: Equinor

The Sputnik well, which is the second well in PL855, proved oil in a large channel system, the company said.

“Detailed fluid analysis combined with geological and geophysical mapping will be carried out to fully understand the commercial potential of the Sputnik discovery,” Ashton added. “If confirmed that the structure comprises volumes that can be recovered in a commercially viable way, the partnership will assess possible development solutions.”

Equinor is operator and holds 55% of the PL855 license. Partners are OMV (25%) and Petoro (20%).

Offshore