Aker BP comes up dry at North Sea wildcat

Exploration and production player Aker BP has completed the drilling of a wildcat well in the North Sea off Norway. The well is dry. 

The well 24/9-11 S was drilled about 7 kilometers west of the Volund field, 11 kilometers southwest of the Alvheim field and 230 kilometers northwest of Stavanger in the central part of the North Sea.

It is located in production license 150 B, where Aker BP is the operator with 65% interest and Lundin Norway is a licensee with an ownership interest of 35%.

The oil company was granted a drilling permit for the well from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) in April. The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Upper Palaeocene reservoir rocks (the Hermod formation).

According to a report on Monday by the NPD, the well 24/9-11 S encountered a 7-meter thick sandstone layer with very good reservoir properties. Some thin, partially cemented sandstone layers were also encountered above the main reservoir, with partially good reservoir properties.

The sandstones have been interpreted as being remobilized from the Hermod formation and injected into the overlying Balder formation. The reservoir rocks have only faint traces of oil. The well is classified as dry. Data acquisition and sampling were carried out.

This is the first exploration well in production license 150 B, which was awarded in APA 2010.

The well was drilled to measured and vertical depths of 2211 and 2114 meters below the sea surface, respectively, and was terminated in the Sele formation in Palaeocene.

Water depth is 122 meters. The well has now been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The well was drilled by the Transocean Arctic drilling rig, which will now proceed to drill observation well 24/6-A-6 H in production license 088 BS on the Alvheim field, where Aker BP is also the operator.