New oil discovery close to Barents Sea Johan Castberg field

The well was drilled five kilometres south-southeast of discovery well 7220/8-1, which is in the Johan Castberg field, and 210 kilometres northwest of Hammerfest.

Equinor is the operator of production licence (PL) 532. Preliminary calculations of the size of the discovery indicate between 37 and 50 million barrels of recoverable oil. Together with the other licensees, Vår Energi and Petoro, Equinor will consider tying the discovery to the Johan Castberg field.

“Snøfonn Nord is an exciting discovery in the vicinity of the Johan Castberg development and can add valuable volumes to the installation in the future,” says Kristin Westvik, Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration and production north.

“In cooperation with the licence partners we will consider a possible development.”

The Snøfonn Nord discovery was made exactly one year after the Isflak discovery in the same area, but is probably somewhat bigger.

Drilling of the well was carried out by the Transocean Enabler rig and is now completed. Transocean Enabler will move 800 metres further west in PL 532 to drill a new exploration well.

Snøfonn Nord is the 10th discovery in the Castberg licence and the 12th exploration well to be drilled in PL 532.

The production licence was awarded in the 20th licencing round in 2009.