Norwegian oil and gas companies Equinor and DNO have completed appraisal well and sidetrack that further delineated the 2023 Heisenberg oil and gas discovery, which is now estimated to hold recoverable volumes in the range of 24 to 56 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe).
Equinor and DNO have delineated the Heisenberg oil and gas discovery in wells 35/10-11 S and A in the North Sea, and have also proven oil in the Hummer prospect in the license PL827SB.
Preliminary calculations indicate that the size of the discovery is between 3.8 and 8.9 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of oil equivalent. This corresponds to 24-56 MMboe.
Resource estimates for Heisenberg prior to drilling were between 4.1 and 9.0 million Sm3 of oil equivalent, while the peliminary calculations place the size of Hummer between 0.1 and 0.6 million Sm3 of oil equivalent.
These are the first and second wells drilled in production licence 827 SB. This is additional acreage for production licence 827 S, where the original discovery was made. The drilling was carried out using the Deepsea Stavanger rig about 140 kilometers northwest of Bergen.
The license partnership, which in addition to DNO Norge (49%) includes operator Equinor Energy (51%), is planning a well in the second quarter of this year to explore an additional deep prospect, Angel, while delineating Heisenberg towards the west.
Surrounded by major North Sea hubs Troll B, Kvitebjørn and Gjøa (the first two operated by Equinor), Heisenberg lies within tieback range of these hosts. Studies are underway for fast-track development of Heisenberg in coordination with a string of recent discoveries in this area in which DNO has a significant presence, including in last year’s Carmen discovery (30%).
“With recent exploration successes, our North Sea portfolio has tilted towards quality discoveries which we now need to rebalance by adding production,” said DNO’s Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani.
The production license was awarded in the Awards in Pre-defined Areas (APA) in 2015, while the additional acreage, 827 SB, was awarded in APA 2022.