Total announces that its affiliate Total E&P Norge has participated in a significant gas and condensate discovery in the King Lear prospect on Production Licenses 146 & 333 in the Southern sector of the Norwegian North Sea.

The King Lear 2/4-21 well has encountered volumes estimated between 70 and 200 million barrels of oil equivalent. The King Lear well was drilled in a water depth of 67m to a vertical depth of 5344m below sea level. Commenting on the discovery, Patrice de Viviès, Senior Vice President, Northern Europe, Total Exploration & Production said: “King Lear lies adjacent to the Ekofisk License and is also close to two blocks awarded to Total in the last APA Licensing round earlier this year, PL618 and PL619. This success confirms the deep gas/condensate prospectivity of the whole area, and we are working to drill a number of additional exploration wells on similar prospects in the next few years. Together with the existing Tommeliten discovery, this could lead to a new gas processing hub in the area, onstream before the end of this decade”.