DEA drills duster in Barents Sea

Oil company DEA Norge has concluded the drilling of wildcat well 7321/4-1 in the Barents Sea off Norway. The well is dry.

The well is located in production license 721 where DEA Norge is the operator.

DEA received consent from the Norwegian offshore safety body to drill an exploration well in the Barents Sea using the Island Innovator rig in July and gained a drilling permit from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) in August.

The well was drilled about 105 kilometers west of the 7324/8-1 (Wisting) oil discovery in the Barents Sea and about 350 kilometers northwest of Hammerfest.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on Friday that the primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Upper Triassic to Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Stø formation) and the secondary target was to prove petroleum in Upper Triassic reservoir rocks (the Snadd formation).

The well 7321/4-1 encountered about 15 meters of aquiferous sandstone in the Stø formation with poor reservoir quality. In the Snadd formation, the well encountered about 32 meters of tight aquiferous sandstone. The well is dry.

Data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.

This is the first exploration well in production license 721 and it was drilled using the Island Innovator drilling rig. The license was awarded in the 22nd licensing round in 2013.

The well 7321/4-1 was drilled to a vertical depth of 1600 meters below the sea surface and was terminated in the Snadd formation from the Late Triassic period. Water depth at the site is 499 meters.

The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

The Island Innovator semi-submersible will now proceed to Hanøytangen.

DEA Norge is part of DEA Group which is the oil and gas business of Mikhail Fridman’s LetterOne.

BASF, the owner of Wintershall, and LetterOne on Friday signed a definitive transaction agreement to merge their respective oil and gas businesses in a joint venture, which will operate under the name Wintershall DEA.