Norway: Total Announces New Gas And Condensate Discovery In Southern North Sea

Total said Wednesday that its affiliate Total E&P Norge has participated in a significant gas and condensate discovery in the King Lear prospect on Production Licenses 146 & 333 in the Southern sector of the Norwegian North Sea (Statoil 77,8% operator – Total 22,2%).

The King Lear 2/4-21 well has encountered volumes estimated between 70 and 200 million barrels of oil equivalent. The King Lear well was drilled in a water depth of 67 metres to a vertical depth of 5,344 metres below sea level.

Commenting on the discovery, Patrice de Viviès, Senior Vice President, Northern Europe, Total Exploration & Production said: “King Lear lies adjacent to the Ekofisk License (Total 39,9%) and is also close to two blocks awarded to Total in the last APA Licensing round earlier this year, PL618 (Total 60%) and PL619 (Total 50%). This success confirms the deep gas/condensate prospectivity of the whole area, and we are working to drill a number of additional exploration wells on similar prospects in the next few years. Together with the existing Tommeliten discovery (Total 20,23%), this could lead to a new gas processing hub in the area, onstream before the end of this decade”.