Norway’s energy duo, Vår Energi and Equinor, have made a gas and condensate find in a new Norwegian Sea license, uncovering a fresh prospect estimated to hold up to 5.5 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
Vår Energi and Equinor have made a gas and condensate discovery in the 6407/5-3 S well, which is known as the Lakris prospect in the Gimsan Basin on the Halten Terrace in the Norwegian Sea.
This wildcat well was drilled about 170 kilometers northwest of Kristiansund as the first exploration well in production license 1002, which was awarded in the APA 2018 round on March 1, 2019.
The licensees in the production license are Vår Energi (operator) and Equinor, which drilled the well 6407/5-3 S using the COSL Prospector semi-submersible rig to a vertical depth of 4,225 meters below sea level and terminated in the Lower Jurassic.
The water depth at the site is 218 meters. The well, which was not formation-tested, but data and samples were collected, will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in chalk reservoir rocks in the Nise Formation, as well as in Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Tilje Formation. Based on the Norwegian Offshore Directorate’s data, hydrocarbon shows were proven in the lower Tilje Formation.
The well did not encounter a sandstone reservoir in the Nise Formation, but elevated gas values were recorded in the interval. The Garn, Ile, and Tofte formations were also investigated, but the intervals were aquiferous, and the reservoir quality was moderate to poor.
The well 6407/5-3 S encountered gas and condensate in the upper Tilje Formation in heterolithic reservoir rocks, totalling 54 meters, with moderate to poor reservoir quality. The gas/water contact was not encountered in the well.
The preliminary calculations indicate the size of the discovery is between 0.2 and 0.9 million standard cubic meters of recoverable oil equivalent, which corresponds to between 1.3 and 5.5 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The latest hydrocarbon find in Norwegian waters comes months after Equinor, Aker BP, and Vår Energi teamed up to look for major hydrocarbon discoveries on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).