Equinor Retreats from Frontier Exploration in Norway’s Arctic

Equinor will reduce its focus on the frontier areas of the Barents Sea in another blow to Norway’s ambition to build a new oil province in its Arctic region.

“Our focus going forward will be on the more prolific areas of the Barents Sea,” Tim Dodson, the company’s executive vice president for exploration, said in an interview on Tuesday. That means drilling near existing discoveries such as Johan Castberg and Wisting rather than riskier but potentially more rewarding targets, he said.

The oil industry’s excitement for the Barents Sea southeast, a new exploration area close to the maritime border with Russia, has been followed by disappointment as the first four wells there failed to come up with anything of note. The prospects had a smaller chance of succeeding than others in better known areas, but had high hopes attached to them because they were some of the biggest geological structures remaining off #Norway.