The Ragnfrid North prospect is located nearly 20km south of the Kristin gas and condensate field which has been in production since 2005. Equinor revealed that the recoverable resources at the new discovery are estimated at 6-25 million barrels of oil equivalent.
According to the Norwegian oil and gas giant, the latest discovery in PL 199 will help clarify the resource base in the area for the coming years.
Equinor Norway and the UK senior vice president Nick Ashton said that along with past discoveries Lavrans and Erlend East, the Ragnfrid North discovery will give a more detailed picture of the potential in that Norwegian Sea region.
Ashton said: “The Ragnfrid North discovery will increase the probability of discovery for other prospects and pave the way for more drilling operations in this central part of the Norwegian Sea.
“This is something we will consider going forward while further analysing the results. The NCS still offers great potential.”
Equinor alongside its partners Petoro, ExxonMobil and Total plan to evaluate the discovery for development and tie-in to the Kristin gas and condensate field and further maturing of the Kristin South project.
The Norwegian oil and gas giant is the operator of Ragnfrid North with a stake of 52%. Petoro, ExxonMobil and Total, hold stakes of 27%, 15% and 6%, respectively in the offshore field.
The drilling of the Ragnfrid North 6406/2-9 S well, which began in October 2018, was executed by the West Phoenix rig. The drilling rig will now move to the UK waters to drill the Equinor-operated Bigfoot prospect located south of the Mariner field.
Earlier this week, Equinor bagged 29 new production licenses on the Norwegian Continental Shelf from Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy during the Awards in Predefined Areas 2018 (APA 2018).
Out of the 29 licenses, Equinor will be operator in 13 blocks and partner in the remaining 16. The company said that seven of the licenses are located in the North Sea, 16 in the Norwegian Sea and six in the Barents Sea.
