Equinor’s Norwegian Sea well comes up dry

Norway’s energy giant Equinor has completed the drilling of a wildcat well in the Norwegian Sea but failed to find hydrocarbons.

The well, 6607/12-5, is located in production licence 943 where Equinor is the operator with DNO Norge, Sval Energi, and Aker BP as partners. The drilling permit for the well was secured in late June 2022.

The well was drilled about 18 kilometres west of the Norne field in the Norwegian Sea and 220 kilometres west of Sandnessjøen. The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Cretaceous reservoir rocks in the Lange and Lysing Formations, as well as to evaluate reservoir properties.

According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s report on Wednesday, the well encountered the Lange and Lysing formations with a thickness of around 67 metres, of which 36 metres were reservoir rocks consisting of sandstone and alternating siltstone and claystone, with poor reservoir quality.

The well is classified as dry, with traces of gas. It was not formation-tested, but extensive data collection has been performed.

This was the first well in the licence, which was awarded in APA 2017.

The well 6607/12-5 was drilled to a vertical depth of 3861 metres below sea level. It was terminated in the Lange Formation in the Early Cretaceous. The water depth at the site is 370 metres. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

The well was drilled by the Deepsea Stavanger semi-submersible drilling rig, which will now drill wildcat well 6507/8-11 S in production licence 124 in the Norwegian Sea, where Equinor is also the operator.

Equinor has recently added another well to the Deepsea Stavanger’s backlog, extending it into the fourth quarter of 2023.