Discovery in the Ofelia exploration well near Gjøa

Neptune Energy, with Wintershall Dea as one of the partners, has made an oil discovery in the Ofelia prospect in the Norwegian North Sea. The Ofelia discovery is estimated to contain between 16 – 39 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent by operator Neptune and will be evaluated as a possible tie-back to the nearby Gjøa field in conjunction with the Hamlet discovery, which was announced earlier this year.

The Ofelia and Hamlet discoveries are located in a key focus area for Wintershall Dea, as operator of the Vega and Nova fields, both of which are subsea fields and tied back to the Gjøa platform, where the company also has a 28% share. They are both examples of Wintershall Dea’s subsea expertise in Norway and the company’s ambition to develop discoveries as efficiently as possible.

“This latest discovery is yet another example of our nearfield exploration strategy in Norway paying off by delivering a series of discoveries, which can be connected to existing infrastructure in order to reduce lead times and greenhouse gas emission intensity,” said Roy Davies, Exploration VP for Wintershall Dea Norge.

The Ofelia discovery is located in the PL929 license, approximately 20 km North of the Gjøa platform and 58km west of Florø, Norway’s most western town. The Ofelia exploration well was drilled at a water depth of 344 metres using the Deepsea Yantai, a semi-submersible rig operated by Odfjell Drilling.

Ofelia is Wintershall Dea’s fourth nearfield discovery in Norway 2022, following the nearby Hamlet discovery announced in May and the Storjo and Newt discoveries in the Skarv area that were announced in July and August respectively.

The Ofelia partners are Neptune Energy (operator and 40%), Wintershall Dea (20%), Pandion Energy (20%), DNO Norge (10%) and ABP Norway (10%).