Equinor

As the saying goes, the future is now. This is certainly the case offshore Norway, which represents one of the industry’s most influential test beds for impactful innovation.

The drilling program is the first exploration well to be drilled in production license 785 S.

The Norwegian oil company is exiting assets in North Dakota and Montana after a decade of development. A Houston-based private equity producer will take over the shale fields.

Norwegian oil and gas firm Equinor said it would work to improve safety in its operations following several serious incidents and injuries in the past year.

Interface Fluidics carved out a niche for itself in the oilfield testing sector a few years ago with a new alternative to coreflooding. Now, along with Equinor, the Calgary-based company is taking on another industry laboratory stalwart: the slimtube test.

Innovators at the Norwegian oil company have developed a machine-learning model that analyzes mud-gas data to predict the gas/oil ratio of wells as they are drilled—something that the industry has worked for decades to accomplish.

Work began in December on the Snorre Expansion Project in the southern part of the Norwegian Sea. This increased-oil-recovery project will add almost 200 million bbl of recoverable oil reserves and help extend the productive life of the Snorre field through 2040.

The $120 million per year, 5-year contracts will provide well-intervention services to Equinor’s fixed platforms.

The Italian oil and gas major has taken on a 20% stake in the first two phases of the project, which ultimately will be run by Equinor.

As it reaches for net-zero emissions, the company said its operations offshore Norway remain central to its long-term strategy.