ORLEN Upstream Norway, together with its partners, has discovered a new gas and condensate field in the North Sea. The prospect, named Frida Kahlo, is estimated to contain approximately 7.2 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company plans to begin production in the first half of 2026, with gas from the field expected to reach Poland via the Baltic Pipe pipeline.
The Frida Kahlo discovery is located in the Sleipner area, one of ORLEN’s key production hubs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The well that identified the new resources was drilled from the Sleipner B production platform. As a result, no additional infrastructure is required to start extraction from the field.
“Frida Kahlo demonstrates the efficiency of our operations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. By using existing infrastructure, we not only reduce the development costs of new resources but also shorten the time required to launch production, thereby accelerating the return on investment,” said Wiesław Prugar, Member of the ORLEN Management Board responsible for Upstream.
“In the case of Frida Kahlo, the pace will be exceptional—the field will start contributing to the ORLEN Group’s financial results just a few weeks after the discovery. The gas will be transported to Poland through the Baltic Pipe pipeline. This is particularly important at a time when energy security—understood as stable access to raw materials—has become more critical than ever before,” he added.
The total resources of the Frida Kahlo field have been preliminarily estimated at 5.3–9.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), including 450–810 million cubic meters of natural gas. ORLEN Upstream Norway holds a 24.41% stake in the license. The remaining partners are Equinor (operator, 58.35%) and Vår Energi (17.24%).
Bringing Frida Kahlo into production will also help maintain the efficient use of extraction infrastructure in the Sleipner area, which accounted for approximately 30% of the ORLEN Group’s total production in Norway in 2025. This production is crucial for the implementation of ORLEN’s 2035 strategy, which assumes that by 2030 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year will be supplied to Poland from the company’s domestic and international fields.
Gas extracted in the Sleipner area is transported to the Kårstø terminal, and from there through the Europipe II pipeline and the Danish transmission system to the Baltic Pipe, which connects Norway with Poland.
The Frida Kahlo discovery marks ORLEN’s second exploration success in the Sleipner area this year. In January, the company discovered the Sissel field, whose resources were estimated at 6.3–28.3 million barrels of oil equivalent, including 0.6–2.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas. ORLEN holds a 50% stake in the Sissel field.
