Another North Sea well comes up dry

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has completed the drilling of a wildcat well near the Troll field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea but failed to find hydrocarbons.

The well 31/2-24, targeting a prospect named Litago, is located in production licence 923, which is operated by Equinor with a 60 per cent interest, while its partners, DNO Norge and Petoro, hold 20 per cent each. This is the sixth exploration well in this licence, which was awarded in APA 2017.

The drilling permit for the well and the consent for exploration drilling in block 31/2 were secured in April and March 2023, respectively. The well 31/2-24 was drilled about 3 kilometres west of the Troll field in the North Sea and about 115 kilometres northwest of Bergen.

According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s report on Tuesday, 13 June 2023, the primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Upper and Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Sognefjord Formation in the Viking Group and the Tarbert, Ness and Etive formations in the Brent Group.

On the other hand, the secondary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Fensfjord Formation in the Viking Group and Oseberg Formation in the Brent Group.

Based on the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s statement, the well 31/2-24 encountered the Sognefjord and Fensfjord formations in the Viking Group, with a total thickness of 514 metres, of which 197 metres were sandstone reservoir of moderate to good quality.

Furthermore, the Tarbert, Ness, Etive and Oseberg formations were encountered in the Brent Group. While the Tarbert, Ness and Etive formations have a thickness of about 106 metres – of which 41 metres were sandstone reservoir with poor to good quality – the Oseberg Formation is about 31 metres thick, of which 25 metres were sandstone reservoir of moderate to good quality.

The well 31/2-24 was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,558 metres below sea level and was terminated in the Drake Formation in Lower Jurassic. The water depth is 330 metres. Data acquisition was carried out and the well is dry, thus it has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

This well was drilled by Odfjell Drilling’s Deepsea Stavanger rig, which will now proceed to drill wildcat well 30/11-15 in production licence 035 in the North Sea. The rig previously drilled the well 31/2-23 S, which also turned out to be dry.

The 2010-built Deepsea Stavanger rig is a sixth-generation deepwater and harsh environment semi-submersible of an enhanced GVA 7500 design.