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Norway’s Var Energi confirms oil find near Barents Sea’s Goliat field

Var Energi, majority-owned by Italy’s Eni, confirmed March 2 an oil discovery close to its Goliat oil hub in the Barents Sea, estimating the find at 3 million-13 million barrels as it tries to bolster resource volumes in the area.

Var first announced the Countach find in early-February and had hoped to drill a sidetrack well, but this has been postponed due to seasonal environmental restrictions. In its latest statement it gave an additional resource estimate of 26 million barrels of oil equivalent for undrilled parts of the prospect.

Var brought the Goliat oil hub on stream in 2016, encountering heavy criticism of its management of the project from Norwegian officials and safety regulators.

It remains Norway’s only producing oil field in the Barents Sea pending startup of the Johan Castberg field, expected in the fourth quarter 2024. The crude is relatively light, with an API gravity of 41.3.

Goliat produced just under 33,000 b/d of oil in 2022, a 6% decline on the previous year and down from an annual peak of 64,000 b/d reached in 2018, according to data from the regulator.

The latest find comes on the heels of Var’s Lupa gas discovery in December 2022, also not far from Goliat, which it estimated at 9-21 Bcm. The earlier Rodhette oil and gas discovery in the Goliat area in 2021 was estimated at 9 million-12 million boe.

Countach “is yet another in a series of successful exploration wells in the Barents Sea in recent years… The discovery confirms our exploration strategy and our position in the area. We will consider potential commercial development options and tie-in of the discovery to Goliat,” Var’s upstream executive vice president Rune Oldervoll said.

Var was created in 2018 predominantly out of Eni’s Norwegian assets and is among Norway’s top producers, having brought ExxonMobil’s Norwegian upstream assets in 2019.

Var is also a partner in the Johan Castberg oil project. A series of additional discoveries have been made in the Castberg area by the operator, state-controlled Equinor.

North Sea benchmark Dated Brent was assessed by Platts at $83.50/b on March 1, up 37 cents on the day. Platts is part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Source: Platts

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