Equinor’s North Sea wildcat yields no hydrocarbons

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has finished drilling a wildcat well in the North Sea with one of Odfjell Drilling’s semi-submersible rigs. The drilling activities did not result in a new oil and gas find off the coast of Norway.

Equinor and its partners have drilled a dry well on the Lit prospect in the North Sea, after the Norwegian firm obtained consent for exploration drilling in block 24/11, located in production license 169, awarded on March 1, 1991, and valid until the same date in 2030. This is the 16th exploration well drilled in this production license.

As the operator of the license, Equinor has an ownership interest of 57%, while its partners, Petoro and Vår Energi, hold the remaining 30% and 13% stakes, respectively. The 25/11-30 S/A well was drilled with Odfjell Drilling’s Deepsea Atlantic rig, which is now drilling the wildcat well 34/6-8 S in production license 554, where Equinor is the operator.

The Lit prospect is situated in the southern part of the Svalin field in the central part of the North Sea, about 9 kilometers from the Balder field. The well’s objective was to prove petroleum in the Odin sandstone, belonging to the Balder Formation in the Palaeocene to Early Eocene.  

While the well did not encounter sandstone in the Balder Formation as planned, the well did encounter the Frigg Formation from the Early Eocene, where the sandstone was about 3 meters thick and had very good reservoir quality. The water depth at the site is 122 meters.

The well 25/11-30 S was drilled to a vertical depth of about 1,808 meters below sea level and terminated in the Lista Formation in the Late Palaeocene. The total measured depth for the wellbore was 2,606 meters. As there were no traces of hydrocarbons, the well is classified as dry; thus, it has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

Equinor recently disclosed plans to invest NOK 21 billion ($2.09 billion) in a new subsea development in the North Sea off the coast of Norway to bring more oil and gas to the European market.