No hydrocarbons for Equinor in North Sea well

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

The well 34/6-6 S is located in production licence 554, where Equinor is the operator with a 40 per cent interest, while other licensees are Aker BP (30 per cent), and Vår Energi (30 per cent). This is the seventh exploration well in this licence, which was awarded in APA 2009.

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) gave Equinor consent for exploration drilling in block 34/6 for the prospect Angulata Brent, a month after the Norwegian player was granted a drilling permit for wells 34/6-6 S and 34/6-6 A by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).

The well was drilled about 10 kilometres north of the Visund field, and about 190 kilometres northwest of Bergen. The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks in the Brent Group from the Middle Jurassic.

According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s report on Friday, the well 34/6-6 S encountered the Tarbert, Etive and Rannoch Formation totalling 140 metres, of which about 90 metres were sandstone layers with poor to good reservoir quality. In addition, 14 metres of sandstone layers with poor to moderate reservoir quality were proven in the Cook Formation with a total thickness of around 75 metres.

The NPD confirms that this well is dry and data acquisition has been carried out. The well 34/6-6 S was drilled to measured and vertical depths of 3,965 metres and 3,713 metres below sea level and was terminated in the Burton Formation from the Early Jurassic. The water depth at the site is 374 metres. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The well was drilled by Transocean’s Transocean Spitsbergen semi-submersible rig, which will now drill a development well on the Vigdis field in production licence 089 in the North Sea, where Equinor is the operator.