Equinor finds gas and condensate in North Sea well

Equinor has discovered gas and condensate in an exploration well 30/2-5 S Atlantis, which is located near the Kvitebjørn field in the North Sea.

The well is located in production licence 878 where Equinor is the operator.

It was drilled about 17 kilometres south of the Kvitebjørn field in the North Sea and 160 kilometres northwest of Bergen.

Equinor said on Wednesday that, based on preliminary estimates, the proven reserves are between 3 and 10 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent, corresponding to 19-63 million barrels of oil equivalent.

“It is encouraging to see that we are able to keep proving more resources in one of the most mature areas on the Norwegian continental shelf. Now we will work on evaluating the potential for profitable and CO2 efficient recovery”, says Nick Ashton, Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration in Norway and the UK.

The primary exploration target of exploration well 30/2-5 S was to prove hydrocarbons in the Middle Jurassic reservoir of the Brent Group.

The well encountered about a 160-metre high gas column, of which 60 metres represent an effective Middle Jurassic reservoir rock.

Poor to satisfactory reservoir quality was encountered in the Ness, Etive and Tarbert formation, while the Rannoch formation had poor reservoir quality.

The well was not formation tested however extensive amounts of data have been acquired and samples have been taken. The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 4359 metres below sea level.

Water depth in the area is 142 metres. The well was permanently plugged and abandoned.

This is the first exploration well to be drilled in production licence 878. 

The well was drilled by the West Hercules drilling rig, which is moving on to drill an exploration well 35/11-24 S, a prospect named Swisher, in production licence 248 C.

The West Hercules was also recently used to drill the wildcat well 35/10-6, also in the North Sea.

The owners of production licence 878 are Equinor (60%), Source Energy (20%), and Wellesley Petroleum (20%).