Oljedirektoratet

From Core Store to Geobank

06/12/2018 «Geobank» is the new name of our core viewing room, which contains much more than just rock samples. The name provides a better description of all the types of geological data we have available.

Geological samples included in Geobank:

  • Drill cores -> 149 km, approx. 775 tonnes
  • Drill cuttings -> 800,000 samples, approx. 510 tonnes, from 2,460 wells
  • Oil samples -> approx. 1000, from nearly all discoveries and fields
  • Microplankton samples -> 115,000. Each of these contains several thousand fossils of plankton, pollen and spores, and tells the story of the Norwegian Continental Shelf over the last 370 million years. 
  • Petrographic thin sections -> approx. 1,500. These are slices of rock that are so thin they are transparent. They show the structure of the rocks on a micro-scale.
  • Seabed minerals -> crystallised out of warm water flowing up along the plate margin between Greenland and Norway
  • Various types of samples from ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) expeditions on the Jan Mayen Ridge, the Gjallar Ridge, the Vøring Spur, etc.

Miles of cores
Here’s a little “fun fact”: If you lined up the cores in a row on the E39 highway, they would stretch from the NPD’s offices in Stavanger all the way to Lyngdal!

Updated: 06/12/2018

Latest news

Announcement of awards in predefined areas (APA) 2024
08/05/2024 The Ministry of Energy announced APA 2024 on 8 May 2024, encompassing the predefined areas with blocks in the Norwegian Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea.
Drilling permission for the wells 7324/6-2 and 7324/8-4
06/05/2024 The Norwegian Offshore Directorate has granted Aker BP ASA drilling permit for the wells 7324/6-2 and 7324/8-4 in production license 1170, cf. Section 13 of the Resource Management Regulations.
Eight companies have applied for CO2 storage acreage
30/04/2024 The Norwegian Ministry of Energy has received applications from eight companies in connection with the announcement of two areas in the North Sea for potential storage of CO2 on the Norwegian shelf.
Invitation to nominate blocks for mineral activities on the seabed
29/04/2024 In a letter of 29 April, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate invited players to nominate blocks in connection with the first licensing round for mineral activities on the seabed.
Drilling permission for wells 35/10-14 S and 35/10-14 A
29/04/2024 The Norwegian Offshore Directorate has granted Equinor Energy AS drilling permit for wells 35/10-14 S and 35/10-14 A in production license 1185, cf. Section 13 of the Resource Management Regulations.
Well for data acquisition on Wisting
22/04/2024 Equinor has completed an appraisal well (7324/7-4) on the Wisting discovery in the Barents Sea. The objective was to acquire data on the reservoir and cap rock, for use in ongoing evaluation and development of the discovery.
Production figures March 2024
19/04/2024 Preliminary production figures for March 2024 show an average daily production of 2 086 000 barrels of oil, NGL and condensate.
Norwegian Offshore Directorate publishes new deep sea data
17/04/2024 In June 2022, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate published data collected up to 2022. The Directorate is now releasing deep sea data gathered from 2022 to 2024.
The future in the Barents Sea is here now
17/04/2024 The Johan Castberg ship will soon be heading north. With the ship in place, the plan is to have three producing fields in the Barents Sea by the end of the year.
Oil discovery in the North Sea
17/04/2024 Vår Energi has made an oil discovery in "Ringhorne Nord" (wells 25/8-23 S and 25/8-23 A & B), north of the Ringhorne Øst field, 200 kilometres northwest of Stavanger.