Aker BP completes pair of North Sea wells

Norwegian oil company Aker BP has completed the drilling of an appraisal well and a wildcat well in the North Sea offshore Norway. 

The appraisal well 25/2-19 S and wildcat well 25/2-19 A were drilled in the central part of the North Sea, about 12 kilometers northeast of the Frøy field and 200 kilometers northwest of Stavanger.

The wells are located in production license 442 where Aker BP is the operator. The oil company was granted drilling permits for these wells by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) in August.

The oil and gas discovery 25/2-10 S (Frigg-GammaDelta) was proven in the Gamma structure in Eocene reservoir rocks (Frigg formation) in 1986. The discovery also includes the 25/2-17 oil discovery proven in the Delta structure in 2009. Before well 25/2-19 S was drilled, the operator’s resource estimate for discovery 25/2-10 S (Frigg-GammaDelta) was about 10 million Sm3 of recoverable oil and 2 billion Sm3 of recoverable gas.

The objective of well 25/2-19 S was to delineate the oil discovery in the Delta structure towards the north and examine the mobility of the oil in the Frigg formation. The well encountered an oil column of 13.5 meters in sandstone with good reservoir quality. The oil/water contact was encountered near 1950 meters below the sea surface. Analyses are ongoing to confirm the resource estimate.

The primary and secondary exploration targets for wildcat well 25/2-19 A were to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (Hugin and Sleipner formations). In the Hugin and Sleipner formations, multiple sandstone layers were encountered, totaling about 50 to 60 meters in each of the formations with reservoir quality varying from poor to good. There are traces of petroleum in some of the sandstone layers in the Sleipner formation.

The well was not formation tested, but data acquisition and sampling have been carried out. These are the sixth and seventh exploration wells in production license 442, which was awarded in APA 2006.

The 25/2-19 S was drilled to vertical and measured depths of 2212 and 2325 meters below the sea surface, respectively, and the well was terminated in the Sele formation from the Palaeocene Age.

The 25/2-19 A was drilled to vertical and measured depths of 3989 and 4155 meters below the sea surface, respectively. The well was terminated in the Sleipner formation.Water depth at the site is 120 meters. The wells have been permanently plugged and abandoned.

Wells 25/2-19 S and 25/2-19 A were drilled by the Maersk Interceptor jack-up drilling rig, which will now proceed to drill development wells on the Tambar field, where Aker BP is also the operator.