Photo: Exploration Revived Award 2025 was given to DNO – Exploration Manager Laila Pedersen and the DNO team received the award on behalf of DNO.
The committee’s conclusion is the following:
DNO exhibited exploration leadership in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea (NCS) from 2023 to 2024, demonstrating technical rigor and strategic vision meriting nomination for the Exploration Revived Award. The company executed a 15-well campaign across operated and partner licenses, sustaining one of the NCS’s most active drilling programs. This balanced strategy pursued infrastructure-led prospects and high-impact wildcat opportunities across diverse geological plays – testing the understanding of new or re-invigorated ideas. By integrating modern seismic imaging, advanced analytics, and classical geological and play fairway mapping routines , DNO systematically de-risked prospects and tested new play concepts. This methodology delivered multiple potentially commercial discoveries with net resource exceeding 100 million barrels of oil equivalent. The recent discovery of Othello in the North Sea epitomizes DNO’s foundation approach.
Targeting a prospect initially regarded as secondary potential pre-drill, the company confirmed light oil in the Våle Formation’s Borr Unit – a novel play fairway in a migration-challenged area. This breakthrough emerged from multidisciplinary integration of satellite analytics, sediment-stratigraphic interpretation informed by the distal Gomez well and Siri trend analogues, and reprocessed seismic data and detailed analyses. The achievement demonstrates how systematic technical reinvestigation can revitalize overlooked opportunities. DNO’s campaign combined operational discipline with intellectual creativity, outperforming industry benchmarks for discovery success rates. The company’s ability to merge cutting-edge technologies with foundational geological principles underscores its commitment to maximizing the NCS’s resource base. By expanding proven plays DNO has set a benchmark for exploration, making its 2023–2024 program uniquely deserving of the Exploration Revived accolade.
The Exploration Revived Award committee:
- Sidsel Lindsø, ExploCrowd
- Anders Wittemann, Wittemann E&P Consulting
- Vaka Antonsdottir, Norwegian Offshore Directorate
- Colin David Hirning, ConocoPhillips
- Tim Dodson, Dodson Consulting
Congratulations from the Exploration Revived Award Committee and NPF!
Nomimees to the Exploration Revived Award 2025
