Recoverable resources at Norway's Equinor North Sea gas field raised to up to 180 million barrels

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 29, Norway's Equinor and its partners completed drilling of the 35/7-2 appraisal well at the Afrodite gas field in the North Sea, confirming the gas and condensate discovery at the field and raising the recoverable resource estimate to 77 million–180 million barrels of oil equivalent, more than double the previous estimate. The well is located in production licence PL293, about 35 kilometres northeast of the Kvitebjørn gas field, and was drilled by the Deepsea Yantai semi-submersible drilling rig.

The appraisal well further confirmed the deeper hydrocarbon-bearing intervals at the field and provided new data on reservoir distribution and resource size. The latest preliminary estimate corresponds to recoverable volumes of approximately 12 million–29 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalent. The field is a high-temperature, high-pressure, low-permeability reservoir, and the partners will continue to analyse the geological and reservoir data obtained from the appraisal well and study subsequent development options.

The Afrodite gas field was discovered in 2008 by Eni Norge through well 35/7-1. Well 35/7-2 was drilled with Wellesley Petroleum as well operator, while Equinor operates production licence PL293. The licence is currently held by Equinor (60%), ORLEN Upstream Norway (25%), DNO Norge (10%) and Wellesley Petroleum (5%).

The development concept study will focus on reservoir stimulation and subsea tie-back. DNO's proposed options include large-scale reservoir fracturing and the construction of approximately 30 kilometres of subsea tie-back facilities connected to the Kvitebjørn production hub. Equinor is studying the reception of gas produced from the Afrodite field via that platform and the use of existing transport facilities to send the gas to the Kollsnes gas processing plant in Øygarden, Norway.