Equinor bites dust on Visund well

Norwegian oil major Equinor has hit dust in a well near the Visund field in the North Sea, offshore Norway.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on Tuesday that Equinor completed the drilling of wildcat well 34/8-19 S located in production license 120.

The well was drilled on the northern side of the Visund field in the northern part of the North Sea.

The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Cook formation, and in Upper Triassic reservoir rocks in the Statfjord group.

According to the NPD, the well encountered about 90-meter-thick rocks in the Cook formation, of which 22 meters were effective reservoir consisting of sandstone with mainly moderate to good reservoir quality.

Due to technical drilling challenges, the well was not drilled to the second exploration target in the Statfjord group. The NPD added that data acquisition was carried out and that the well was classified as dry. The well will be permanently plugged and abandoned.

This is the 24th exploration well in production license 120, which was awarded in licensing round 10-A in 1985.

Well 34/8-19 S was drilled to a measured depth of 6,100 meters, a vertical depth of 3,137 meters below the sea surface and was terminated in the Amundsen formation in Lower Jurassic.

The well was drilled by Deepsea Atlantic, which will proceed to drill a development well 34/8-D-4 AH on Visund Nord in the North Sea, where Equinor is the operator.

To remind, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) gave consent to Equinor, then Statoil, to use the Deepsea Atlantic for drilling and completion of production wells on the Visund field in late January while a consent to drill the well came from the NPD in mid-March.