Aker BP Breaks Offshore Drilling Record with Longest Well Offshore Norway. Makes Significant Oil Find

Norwegian oil company Aker BP said Friday it had the drilling of the Øst Frigg Beta/Epsilon exploration well in the Yggdrasil area, the longest exploration well ever drilled on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, resulting in a significant oil discovery. 

When the Øst Frigg Beta/Epsilon wildcat well reached its target depth, the team had drilled 8168 meters, breaking Norway's offshore drilling record.

The updated estimate of the discovery size is 53-90 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), which is twice as large as the original pre-drill estimate and slightly larger than the preliminary estimates announced on May 25, Aker BP said.

The discovery, located in the Yggdrasil area in the North Sea offshore Norway, and drilled using Saipem's Sacarbeo 8 semi-submersible drilling rig, increase the resource base for the ongoing Yggdrasil development by about 10 percent to more than 700 million barrels. Scarabeo 8 (File photo: Saipem)

The Yggdrasil development was recently approved by Stortinget (the Norwegian parliament) and is planned to start production in 2027. 

 The discovery is located within production licenses 873 and 442. In licence 873, the partnership consists of Aker BP (operator, 47.7 percent interest), Equinor (40 percent interest) and PGNiG Upstream Norway (12.3 percent interest). 

“Now we’ve proven that we can drill horizontally in the Frigg formation, and that we can drill over very long distances. Aker BP is planning 55 wells in the Yggdrasil area. Drilling is scheduled to start in 2025, and we’ll be spending the years leading up to this ensuring efficient planning and implementation of the production wells, many of which are horizontal,” says Hanna Tronstad, drilling superintendent.

In licence 442, the partnership comprises Aker BP (operator, 87.7 percent interest) and PGNiG Upstream Norway (12.3 percent interest).