Equinor said on Sept. 29 it has found oil and gas at the Swisher prospect, where recoverable resources are estimated to be between 13-28 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Located in the North Sea about 7 km west of the Fram Field, wells 35/11-24 S, 35/11-24 A and 35/11-24 B were drilled by the West Hercules drilling rig and aimed to find oil in the Upper Jurassic rocks of the Heather Formation.

Well 35/11-24 S hit a 42-m hydrocarbon column, Well 35/11-24 A hit a 25-m gas column, and Well 35/11-24 B encountered an oil column of at least 3 m, Equinor said in a news release.

All three wells, which have since been permanently plugged and abandoned, encountered hydrocarbons in the Heather Formation. They were drilled to depths between 3,000 m and 3,600 m. Water depth is the area is about 356 m, according to Equinor.

Source: Equinor
Source: Equinor

“This strongly indicates that it is still possible to prove new and profitable resources that can utilize existing infrastructure on the NCS,” Nick Ashton, Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration in Norway, said in the release.

Equinor’s license partners are Petoro AS and Wellesley Petroleum AS. The discovery could be developed as a tie-in to existing infrastructure nearby.

West Hercules will now move on to drill at the Apollonia prospect in production license 263D in the Norwegian Sea, Equinor said.

Offshore