Equinor and partners Petoro, ConocoPhillips and Repsol have made an oil discovery from the Visund A platform in the Telesto exploration well in the North Sea, Equinor said in a news release. The resources are estimated at 12-28 million barrels of recoverable oil.

“These are profitable barrels that can be quickly tied in to existing infrastructure and generate substantial revenues for society,” Nick Ashton, Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration in Norway and the U.K., said in the release.

The Telesto exploration well, well number 34/8-18 S in production license 120, was drilled from the Visund A platform in the Tampen area in the northern North Sea, the release said.

Source: Equinor
Source: Equinor

The well was drilled to a measured depth of 6,039 m and a vertical depth of 3,298 m in a water depth of 335 m, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).

“Well 34/8-18 S encountered an oil column of about 115 meters in the upper and lower part of the Statfjord group, with effective reservoir of 17 and 20 meters, respectively, in sandstone mainly with moderate reservoir quality,” the NPD said. “In the upper part of the Lunde formation in the Upper Triassic, about 15 meters of aquiferous sandstone with poor reservoir quality was encountered. The oil-water contact was encountered in the lower Statfjord group at about 3,170 meters below sea level.

The NPD said the well was not formation tested, but data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.

Geological data have been acquired for further analysis, and the well has been plugged and abandoned. Equinor said the company and its partners will now consider how to develop the discovery.

Offshore