Oil Discovery South of Johan Castberg in the Barents Sea – 7219/9-2
Monday 3 July 2017
Statoil Petroleum AS, operator of production licence 532, has completed the drilling of wildcat well 7219/9-2. The well proved oil.
The well was drilled about 23 kilometres southwest of the discovery well 7220/8-1 Johan Castberg and 225 kilometres northwest of Hammerfest.
The primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Early Cretaceous reservoir rocks (top part of the Kolje formation). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in somewhat older Early Cretaceous reservoir rocks (lower part of the Kolje formation).
Well 7219/9-2 encountered oil in two sandstone intervals with thicknesses of 27 and 18 metres, with moderate to poor reservoir quality in the upper part of the Kolje formation. The oil-water contact was not encountered. Reservoir rocks were not encountered in the lower part of the Kolje formation.
Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 4 and 8 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil. Tie-in of the discovery to the Johan Castberg discovery will be assessed. Further delineation of the discovery is currently being considered to clarify the total volume potential.
The well was not formation tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.
This is the eighth exploration well in production licence 532. The licence was awarded in the 20th licensing round in 2009.
The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2532 metres below the sea surface, and was terminated in the Stø formation in the Middle Jurassic. Water depth is 336 metres. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
Well 7219/9-2 was drilled by the Songa Enabler drilling facility, which will now proceed to production licence 849 in the Barents Sea to complete the drilling of 7121/8-1 (Blåmann), where Statoil Petroleum AS is the operator.