Thursday 24 August 2017

Statoil Petroleum AS, operator of production licence 124, is about to complete the drilling of wildcat well 6507/8-9.

The well was drilled about 9 kilometres northeast of the Heidrun field in the Norwegian Sea and about 270 kilometres southwest of Sandnessjøen.

The primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Middle and/or Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Fangst and/or Båt Group). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Båt Group).

The well encountered a gas column of a total of approx. 80 metres in the Åre formation in the Båt Group, of which 35 metres were in sandstone with good reservoir quality. The gas/water contact was proven 2185 metres below the sea surface. In the secondary exploration target, the well encountered several water-filled sandstone layers with good reservoir quality in lower parts of the Åre formation in the Båt Group.

The preliminary estimation of the size of the discovery is between 0.7 and 1.2 billion standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable gas. The licensees in production licence 124 will consider a tie-in of the discovery to existing infrastructure on the Heidrun field.

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 124. The licence was awarded in the 10th licensing round in 1986.

6507/8-9 was drilled to a vertical depth of 2352 metres below the sea surface, and was terminated in the Åre formation in the Lower Jurassic.

Water depth is 358 metres. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Well 6507/8-9 was drilled by the Deepsea Bergen drilling facility, which will now proceed to drill wildcat well 33/9-22 S in production licence 881 in the North Sea, where Wellesley Petroleum AS is the operator.