Under this agreement, Equinor will acquire a 30% interest in the PL 255 covering the Linnorm discovery, conditional upon taking over the operatorship from A/S Norske Shell. The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2024.

“Through this acquisition Equinor will deepen our position in the Halten area, in line with our strategy to optimise our portfolio on the NCS. We know this area well, where we already have producing hubs and still see attractive opportunities,” says Kjetil Hove, executive vice president for Exploration and production Norway in Equinor.

The Linnorm discovery in the Norwegian Sea was proven in 2005 and is the largest undeveloped gas discovery on the NCS. Linnorm is estimated to contain around 25-30 billion cubic meters (bcm)of recoverable gas resources. As a comparison, this is more gas than remaining reserves in each of the producing fields Aasta Hansteen, Martin Linge, and Gina Krog.

“A lot of good work has already been done to mature Linnorm. Together with our partners, we will build on this and develop the Linnorm gas resources for the European market,” Hove continues.

Equinor will continue to evaluate a tie-back for Linnorm to the Equinor- operated Kristin or Åsgard B installations.

“We are proud of our efforts to mature Linnorm and are pleased that we were able to find a solution which opens for it to be developed with an aligned partnership. This does not impact our ambition to maintain a material upstream position in Norway and contribute to the development and transition of the Norwegian Continental Shelf,” says Marianne Olsnes, managing director of Shell in Norway.

The deal is conditional on the approval of the Norwegian authorities.

The partners in PL 255 are: A/S Norske Shell 30% (operator until the transaction is completed), Petoro 30%, Equinor Energy 20 %, TotalEnergies EP Norge AS 20%.