Neptune finds hydrocarbons in Norwegian Sea prospect

Oil and gas company Neptune Energy has encountered hydrocarbons during the drilling of an exploration well located in the Norwegian Sea, however, more information is required to confirm whether commercial volumes are present.

Neptune Energy announced on Wednesday that hydrocarbons were encountered in the Calypso exploration well (6407/8-8 S) located in the Norwegian Sea within the production licence 938.

Neptune Energy is the operator of the licence with a 30 per cent interest and its partners are OKEA (30 per cent), Pandion Energy AS (20 per cent), and Vår Energi (20 per cent).

After securing the necessary permits to drill this well in October 2022, the firm spudded it earlier this month with the Deepsea Yantai, a semi-submersible rig, owned by CIMC and operated by Odfjell Drilling.

According to Neptune, the Calypso prospect is positioned within one of its core areas on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, as it is located 14 kilometres northwest of the Draugen field and 22 kilometres northeast of the Njord A platform. In the event of a commercial discovery, this prospect could potentially be tied back to existing infrastructure.

The company explains that logs proved the presence of hydrocarbons in the reservoir, but additional data gathering will be considered, as operations in the reservoir section remain at “an early stage” and “it has yet to be confirmed if commercial volumes are present.”

The 2019-built Deepsea Yantai rig, which is of a GM4D design, is capable of operations in harsh environments and at water depths of up to 1,200 m. In August 2022, the rig made an oil discovery in the Norwegian North Sea while drilling for Neptune.

This rig has been working for Neptune Energy in Norway since November 2019. Two years later, in November 2021, the firm extended the rig’s contract to include three additional wells in 2022. Two more wells were also added to the rig’s backlog in October 2022.