Equinor has drilled a wildcat well on the Vikingskipet prospect in the Barents Sea that did not deliver commercial quantities of hydrocarbons, and the well has been plugged and abandoned.

The exploration well, 7018/5-2, was drilled in block 7018/5 under production licence 1236 using the semi-submersible rig COSL Prospector, owned by COSL Drilling Europe. The prospect is in 308 m of water offshore Norway.

The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 1,880 m below sea level and was terminated in the Tubåen Formation in the Lower Jurassic. Secondary targets in the lower Tubåen and Fruholmen formations were not reached.

The primary objective was to confirm petroleum in Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks in the upper part of the Tubåen Formation. A secondary objective was to test Middle Jurassic to Upper Triassic reservoir rocks in the Nordmela Formation, the lower Tubåen Formation, and the Fruholmen Formation.

Operational challenges while drilling the Stø and Nordmela formations resulted in a technical sidetrack. In the main target interval, the well encountered the Tubåen Formation with a total thickness of 104 m, including 25 m of sandstone with poor to moderate reservoir quality.

In the secondary target interval, the well encountered the Nordmela Formation with a total thickness of 643 m, including 60 m of sandstone with poor to moderate reservoir quality. The well also encountered the Stø Formation with an overall thickness of 272 m, including 233 m of sandstone layers.

The well location is about 190 km west of Hammerfest and about 140 km southwest of the Snøhvit field. This was the first exploration well in the licence, which was awarded in 2024 (APA 2023). The licence partners are Equinor as operator, Vår Energi, and Petoro, and consent for exploration drilling was granted by the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority.

Separately, Equinor recently made an oil and gas discovery at another Norwegian well about 190 km northwest of Bergen.