500MMboe in 2018

Altogether 13 discoveries were made on the NCS last year. In total they proved a minimum of 240MMboe and a maximum of 720MMboe, according to NPD press releases throughout the year. The mean value is approximately 500MMboe.

The winner was Hades/Iris offshore Mid-Norway with potentially 245MMboe gas and condensate. In fact, offshore Mid-Norway (with Hades/Iris and Balderbrå) did better than both the North Sea and the Barents Sea (mean values of 235MMboe vs 96 and 146MMboe, respectively).

“The HPHT (high pressure, high temperature) well had two exploration targets, the primary target of the Hades prospect in the Cretaceous Lange Formation, and the secondary target in the Jurassic Garn Formation of the Iris prospect. The well discovered gas and condensate in both exploration targets with very good reservoir properties,” according to the operator OMV.

Second in line was Intrepid Eagle in the Barents Sea with up to 150MMboe of gas.

Only 3 qualifiy as major discoveries according to American standards (>100MMboe). None qualify as giant discoveries (>500MMboe). The larger part of the discoveries – 10 – are therefore considered small. Only one of the them – Frosk – has found more than 50MMboe.

Note: The Grosbeak discovery is not included in this review. The reason being that it was made in 2009 with well 35/12-2 (“Prime example of missed pay“). 35/11-21S and 35/11-21A were both appraisal wells.