New discovery near the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea

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

Equinor is the operator of production licence 532. The size of the discovery is preliminarily estimated at between 5-10 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. Together with the other licensees, Vår Energi and Petoro, Equinor will consider tying the discovery into the Johan Castberg field.

“The drilling operation was safely and efficiently performed. The new discovery and information will be viewed in the light of other discoveries in the area, and together with our partners we will consider further development of the area,” says Kristin Westvik, Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration and production north.

The news about the Snøfonn North oil discovery was published on 25 May this year, about one year after the Isflak discovery in the same area.

Skavl Stø will be further matured together with Snøfonn North and the previous discoveries Skavl (2014) and Isflak (2021).

The well was drilled by Transocean Enabler.

Skavl Stø is the thirteenth exploration well in the Castberg licence. The production licence was awarded in the 20th licensing round in 2009.