Oil and gas discovery in the Barents Sea (7122/7-8)
The well was drilled by the COSLProspector rig. (Photo: COSL)
12/4/2025 Vår Energi and its partners have discovered oil and gas in the "Goliat Nord" prospect.
Wildcat well 7122/7-8 has been drilled in production licence 229, 3 kilometres from the Goliat facility and 90 kilometres from Hammerfest.
Preliminary estimates indicate the size of the discovery is between 0.4 and 0.8 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent. This corresponds to between 2.5 and 5 million barrels o.e..
7122/7-8 is the 12th exploration well drilled in production licence 229, which was awarded in the Barents Sea Project 1997.
The licensees will consider tying the discovery back to existing infrastructure on the Goliat field.
The well was drilled by the COSLProspector rig.
Geological information
The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in the Goliat Nord prospect in the Lower Jurassic/Upper Triassic and in Middle Triassic reservoir rocks in the Realgrunnen Subgroup and Kobbe Formation, respectively.
Well 7122/7-8 S encountered an 8-metre gas/oil column in the Tubåen Formation in the Realgrunnen Subgroup in reservoir rocks totalling 6.5 metres, with good reservoir quality. The gas/oil contact was encountered 1255 metres below sea level. The total thickness of the Tubåen Formation is 17 metres. The oil/water contact was not encountered.
The well also encountered a 6-metre gas/oil column in the Fruholmen Formation in the Realgrunnen Subgroup in reservoir rocks with good reservoir quality. The total thickness of the Fruholmen Formation is 104 metres. The gas/oil contact was encountered 1285 metres below sea level.
The oil/water contact was encountered 1290 meters below sea level.
In the Kobbe Formation, the well encountered a 17-metre oil column in reservoir rocks totalling 12 metres, with good reservoir quality. The total thickness of the Kobbe Formation is 146 metres. The oil/water contact was encountered 2048 meters below sea level.
The well was not formation-tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling were carried out.
Wildcat well 7122/7-8 was drilled to a vertical depth of 2197 metres below sea level and was terminated in the Kobbe Formation in the Middle Triassic.
Water depth at the site is 409 metres, and the well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.
Updated: 12/4/2025