Equinor and partners OMV and Petoro have made an oil discovery in the Sputnik exploration well in the Barents Sea. Recoverable resources are preliminarily estimated at 20 65 million barrels of oil.
The Sputnik well was drilled in license PL855, approximately 30 kilometers North East of the Wisting discovery. The well encountered a 15-meter oil column in a Triassic sandstone reservoir.
In 2017, Equinor’s Gemini Nord well resulted in a very small, uncommercial oil discovery in a reservoir channel system within the PL855 license. In 2018, a larger channel complex was targeted in the neighboring PL615 license, with the Intrepid Eagle well. This well proved a 200-meter gas column, but no oil. The Sputnik well, which is the second well in PL855, has proven oil in a large channel system.
The Sputnik well (7324/6-1) was drilled to a vertical depth of 1569 meters below the seabed by semi-submersible drilling rig West Hercules, which has now moved on to drill the Equinor operated Lanterna well in PL796 in the Norwegian Sea.
Equinor is an operator and holds 55% of the PL855 license. Partners are OMV (25%) and Petoro (20%).
