Equinor aims to produce as much oil from its Norwegian fields at the end of this decade as it did in 2020, and may be able to extend this ambition to 2035, its head of Norway operations Kjetil Hove told Reuters on Tuesday.
The company plans to drill around 30 oil and gas exploration wells in Norwegian waters in 2024 as well as 5-6 wells abroad, Hove and Equinor’s head of international operations, Philippe Mathieu, said on the sidelines of a conference in Norway.
The international exploration wells will include a few off Canada to appraise the Bay du Nord discovery, one well off Argentina and another few wells off Angola, the executives added.
“Exploration is still going to be important for the Norwegian continental shelf,” Hove said.
“We have said for some years now that we’re going to drill around 20-30 exploration wells annually. And this year we are in the upper part of that and next year maybe even more than 30,” he added.
Hove also said that while next year’s exploration in the Arctic Barents Sea will focus on oil, in 2025-2026 the company’s aim would be to focus on searching for gas in licensing areas recently offered by the Norwegian government.
Mathieu said Equinor will drill off Canada to confirm or improve a business case for developing the Bay du Nord field. In May, Equinor postponed investment decision on the discovery for up to three years due to rising costs.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Nora Buli, editing by Terje Solsvik)