Aker BP makes minor gas discovery near Skarv field

Norwegian oil and gas company Aker BP has made a minor gas discovery southwest of the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea. 

Aker BP has concluded the drilling of wildcat well 6506/5-1 S located in its operated production license 1008. The prospect was named Nidhogg.

The oil company received consent to use the Deepsea Nordkapp rig for this well in November 2019 and a drilling permit in December.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said on Monday that the well was drilled about 50 kilometers southwest of the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea and 210 kilometers west of Brønnøysund.

The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Upper Cretaceous reservoir rocks (the Lysing Formation).

The well 6506/5-1 S encountered a total gas column of about 15 meters in the Lysing Formation, of which 10 meters of sandstones of very good reservoir quality. Deeper in the Lysing Formation, about 25 meters of net water-bearing reservoir rocks were encountered, mainly of moderate reservoir quality.

Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 1.0 and 2.4 billion standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable gas. The licensees will evaluate the discovery together with nearby prospects with regard to further follow-up.

The well was not formation tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.

This is the first exploration well in production license 1008, which was awarded in APA 2018.

The well 6506/5-1 S was drilled to a measured depth of 3225 meters and a vertical depth of 3166 meters below sea level, and it was terminated in the Lange Formation in the Lower Cretaceous.

The water depth at the site is 409 meters. The well has been temporarily plugged and abandoned.

The well 6506/5-1 S was drilled by the Deepsea Nordkapp drilling rig, which will now drill observation well 25/4-K-7 H on the Alvheim field in the central part of the North Sea, where Aker BP is also the operator.