Equinor, Wellesley Tie Up for Norwegian Exploration

Wellesley Petroleum AS and Equinor ASA have agreed to pursue a joint exploration campaign in Norwegian waters to offset an expected natural decline in production in the next decade.

The partners aim to drill up to 15 wells between 2027 and 2030. “Wellesley will target operating up to 3-5 HPHT wells per year, with drilling taking place in licenses where Equinor and Wellesley already work together”, Wellesley Petroleum said in an online statement Thursday.

“Both companies recognize the challenge of declining production on the NCS [Norwegian continental shelf] in the coming decade”, Wellesley Petroleum said. “Successful exploration – particularly close to existing hubs – is a key enabler to sustaining output, maximizing resource recovery and extending the productive life of offshore facilities.

“The Joint Exploration Project brings together Equinor’s regional knowledge, subsurface experience and infrastructure position with Wellesley’s focused exploration model and proven capability as an HPHT [high-pressure, high-temperature] drilling operator. The objective is to improve the quality of the NCS prospect portfolio, increase exploration activity and accelerate the time from exploration drilling to first production.

“The collaboration will focus on HPHT opportunities in selected core areas of the Northern North Sea, where deeper targets remain underexplored but offer significant resource potential. By combining datasets, interpretations and technical expertise, the companies aim to mature prospects more efficiently and prioritize the most robust drilling candidates”.

“Each company retains full independence and continues to act within existing license structures and governance frameworks”, Wellesley Petroleum said.

Norway’s upstream regulator has urged companies to collaborate to ensure profitable production from frontier areas.

“There are large quantities of oil and gas in so-called tight reservoirs on the Norwegian continental shelf. Many of the about 90 discoveries still awaiting a development decision are located in such tight reservoirs”, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) said in a report Tuesday.

“In order to extract these resources in a profitable way, the industry will need to improve cooperation, cut costs and apply more modern technology”.

In “The Shelf” report published January 8, the NOD maintained that Norwegian production is poised to “remain at a stable, high level over the next few years, and will then gradually decline towards the end of the 2020s”.

At yearend 2025 the NCS had 17 field development projects underway, the report said. Eight of these are on Norway’s side of the North Sea, eight in the Norwegian Sea and one in the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea.

“These projects will help keep the investment level high and slow the underlying decline in production over the next decade”, the report said. “Additional development projects will also help extend lifetimes and thereby lead to improved recovery from existing fields. 

In 2026 the NOD expects exploration activity to decline and investment in the NCS to fall 6.5 percent from 2025 to NOK 256 billion ($26.5 billion). “The Directorate expects the investment level to decline gradually leading up to 2030”, the report said. 

“Significant activity and scarce capacity in parts of the supplier industry, presumed extended lifetimes for several production facilities and growth in costs have led to higher projected costs and investments.

“This is especially for 2026-2029, compared with what was presented in early 2025. Additional development wells and higher drilling costs per development well also contribute to a higher level of investment. Projected investments for certain ongoing developments have also increased.

“The primary cause of falling investments moving forward is the gradual completion and production startup of ongoing development projects. This will take place without new projects of an equivalent scope expected to come on stream”.

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