Vår Energi (OSE:VAR) has confirmed an oil discovery in Norway’s Arctic Barents Sea, in the latest success in the already prolific Goliat area.
Oslo-listed Vår said it had found oil at its operated 7122/8-1S Countach well in licence PL229, north-west of Hammerfest, though did not provide an updated assessment of volumes.
Countach was spudded on 18 November with the Transocean Enabler semi-sub. It had been targeting the Triassic Kobbe Formation, with pre-drill resources quoted at 41 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
Vår Energi operates the licence – which also contains the Goliat field – with a 65% equity share, alongside minority partner Equinor (35%).
It confirmed Thursday that Countach was drilled to 2,958m and encountered oil in the Realgrunnen and Kobbe formations.
A sidetrack is now planned to better define the size of the discovery, while data is also being collected for further assessment.
Vår said updated information about its volume estimates would be released “in due course.”
It follows news in December of the “largest discovery” in the Barents of 2022 at Lupa – also in the Goliat Area – which yielded estimated recoverable resources of 57-132 million boe.
At the time the company development of the prospect would build on its hub-focused strategy in the region, via tiebacks to the existing Goliat FPSO. Current production capacity at the unit is around 100,000 bpd, with storage for around 1 million barrels.
Vår Energi currently has equity stakes in 35 fields and producing a net 220,000 boepd in 2022.
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