Two new gas discoveries mark Equinor’s biggest North Sea finds this year

OIL AND GAS giant Equinor have discovered two major gas and condensate wells in the Sleipner area of the North Sea, marking its largest finds this year.

Located west of Norway, the Lofn and Langemann wells were discovered between the existing Gudrun and Eirin gas fields and are estimated to contain between 30 and 110m barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.

The Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) remains central to Equinor’s operations, accounting for around 70% of Norway’s oil and gas production.

Lofn and Langemann follow several other oil and gas discoveries the company has made this year, including gas in the Mistral Sør exploration well in the Halten area of the Norwegian Sea, and an additional oil and gas find in the Troll field in the North Sea.

Equinor is also leading the Rosebank oil and gas field project in Scotland, which is currently facing a contentious approval process after a Scottish court ruled its initial consent “unlawful”. The company has recently confirmed that the field could generate up to 250m tCO2e of emissions over 25 years.

Oil and gas priority

Like many energy firms in recent years, Equinor has shifted its focus toward oil and gas while scaling back its renewable ambitions. Earlier this year, the company confirmed it would cut its investment in renewables by half while increasing oil and gas production by around 10%.

Equinor also announced plans to drill 250 oil and gas exploration wells in Norway over the next decade.

Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s executive VP for exploration & production Norway, said: “There are still significant energy resources on the shelf and Europe needs stable oil and gas deliveries.

“Discoveries near existing fields can be developed quickly through subsea facilities, with limited environmental impact, very low CO2 emissions from production and strong profitability. Equinor plans to accelerate such developments on the Norwegian continental shelf.”