North Sea Oil & Gas Discoveries: Aker BP’s Yggdrasil Area Discovery and OKEA’s Brage Field Discovery, Both Offshore Norway

     New big discoveries of oil & gas in the North Sea are important for Europe, which must import most of its oil & gas and continue to continue its wean away from Russian oil & gas. A new discovery in the Barents Sea was turned in line recently, and two new discoveries, recounted here, have been announced in the North Sea. In addition, Poland recently announced a big find offshore in the Baltic Sea.  

 

Aker BP’s Omega Alpha Campaign in the Yggdrasil Area

     Aker BP reports that they have successfully completed the Omega Alfa exploration campaign in the Norwegian North Sea in the Yggdrasil Field. They expect to recover 96–134 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe). The campaign is considered the biggest find in a decade offshore Norway. Yggdrasil Field is the largest field development ongoing on the Norwegian shelf. The most recent project involved multilateral horizontal drilling to multiple target formations.

“The campaign had five exploration targets – Omega, Alfa, Alfa South, Sigma NE, and Pi – through a multilateral well located west of Yggdrasil. In July, Aker BP preliminarily reported a discovery of 20–40 mmboe from two of these targets. Following the completion of the campaign, the combined recoverable volumes have increased to 96–134 mmboe.”

“Drilling operations began in early May using the Deepsea Stavanger rig. Over a three-month period, the team drilled a total of 45,000 metres, including 40,000 metres in reservoir sections. This included the three longest well branches ever drilled on the Norwegian continental shelf, with the longest branch reaching 10,666 metres.”

“The horizontal drilling method enabled the collection of an unprecedented amount of high-quality reservoir data. This has significantly reduced subsurface uncertainty and allows us to rapidly advance into concept studies to determine the optimal tie-back solution to Yggdrasil.”

     The proved resources of Yggdrasil Field are at about 700 mmboe, but they hope to stretch that up to 1 billion boe. Partners in the project and their percentages are as follows: Aker BP (47.7%), Equinor (40%), and Orlen Upstream Norway (12.3%).

     First oil from the project is expected in 2027, and more exploration is expected as well.

 

OKEA’s Brage Field Discovery

     A new find in the Brage Field by OKEA in the Talisker exploration well is expected to yield 16-33 mmboe. This well targeted the Cook and Statfjord formations. Further exploration and appraisal of the two thin sandstones of the Brent Group is expected in the 4Q 2025. The well’s measured depth is 10,223 meters.

“This discovery is another example of OKEA’s strategy to utilise existing infrastructure, subsurface knowledge and drilling technology to unlock more value in the Brage area, and extend the lifetime of the field", says Svein J. Liknes, CEO of OKEA

     The Brage Field was discovered in 1980, and first production began in 1993. It is located 125 km west of Bergen, Norway, in water depths of 137 meters. Production is mainly crude oil.

North Sea Historical and Future Production

     Finding success in extending older fields like Brage is more economical for producers since they can utilize the existing infrastructure. These new discoveries at Brage and Yggdrasil suggest that although North Sea production is probably in terminal decline, new discoveries can stabilize production. North Sea production peaked at the end of the 1990s at 6 million barrels per day but has since dropped to below 3 million barrels per day. It is expected to drop further to about 2.2 million barrels per day by 2030 without significant new discoveries. At least, the Norwegian contribution, which is more than two-thirds of total North Sea production, is expected to stabilize and perhaps grow just a bit, as long as new discoveries continue to be made. Norway exports up to 90% of its production, mainly to the EU.

References:

 

Aker BP makes one of Norway's largest commercial discoveries in a decade. Seeking Alpha. August 21, 2025. Aker BP makes one of Norway's largest commercial discoveries in a decade

OKEA confirms commercial oil discovery in Norway’s Brage Field. World Oil. August 25, 2025.  OKEA confirms commercial oil discovery in Norway's Brage Field

Significant oil discovery in the Yggdrasil area. Aker BP. August 21, 2025. Significant oil discovery in the Yggdrasil area - Aker BP

Oil discovery in the Talisker exploration well at the Brage field. OKEA. August 25, 2025. Oil discovery in the Talisker exploration well at the Brage field - OKEA

The North Sea—A Long and Proud History. Timilehin Adegbamigbe, Aakash Biswas, James Blaney, and Akshay Jagtap. Journal of Petroleum Technology. May 27, 2022. The North Sea—A Long and Proud History

Oil 2025: Analysis and forecast to 2030. International energy Agency. Oil 2025: Analysis and forecast to 2030