Faroe Petroleum announces oil and gas discovery at the Statoil-operated Njord North Flank exploration Well and Side-track
Tuesday 18 October 2016
JV partner Faroe Petroleum has announced an oil and gas discovery at the Statoil-operated Njord North Flank in the Norwegian Sea (Faroe 7.5%). The well and side-track - NF-2 and NF3 - are located approx. 6 kms to the north of the Njord production facility (Faroe 7.5%).
The NF-2 exploration well 6407/7-9 S was drilled to a total depth of 4,105 metres below sea level. The well encountered 102 metres of gross oil-bearing reservoir in Middle and Lower Jurassic sandstones of the Ile and 157 metres of a gross gas condensate-bearing column in Lower Jurassic sandstones in the Tilje formation.
Based on these results the partnership decided to drill a side-track well 6407/7-9A to test a fault-block lying to the east which was drilled to a total depth of 4,127 metres below sea level. The well encountered 195 metres of gross gas-bearing column in the Tilje Formation. In addition 140 metres of gross gas-bearing column were encountered in Lower Jurassic sandstones in the Åre Formation. No hydrocarbons were encountered in the Ile Formation in NF3.
Neither well was drill stem tested but extensive data acquisition and sampling has been performed on both wells. Based on the data acquired, a preliminary estimate of the size of the NF-2 discovery is between 1.3 and 18.9 mmboe for NF-2 and between 0.6 and 9.4 mmboe for side-track NF-3. Collectively these discoveries are equivalent to a range of 1.9mmboe to 28.3mmboe (0.14mmboe to 2.1mmboe net to Faroe). These results are in line with pre-drill estimates.
The well has now been plugged and abandoned as planned and the partners will start work on assessing the commercial potential of the discovery.
The NF-2 exploration well was operated by Statoil (20%) using the Songa Delta drilling rig, with co-venturers ENGIE E&P Norge (40%), DEA E&P Norge (30%) and VNG Norge (2.5%).
Graham Stewart, Chief Executive of Faroe Petroleum, commented:
'We are pleased to announce this oil and gas discovery on the Njord North Flank, Faroe’s second discovery of the year, following our significant Brasse oil and gas find announced in summer, which is also located very close to infrastructure. This new Greater Njord Area discovery builds on Faroe’s already significant position in this core area of the Norwegian Sea and has the potential to add further value and reserves to the Njord Future Project, which is scheduled to commence in early 2017. The North Flank discovery has also benefited from low rig rates and hence drilling costs, which, coupled with the Norwegian exploration tax rebate, has ensured Faroe’s cost exposure was very low and maintains our low finding costs.
We look forward to Faroe’s continuing exploration programme; next up is the high impact exploration well on the Dazzler prospect (Faroe 20%) located in the Barents Sea. Dazzler will be operated by Eni and is scheduled to spud around year end.'