No luck for Equinor in well near Troll field

Norwegian oil and gas major Equinor has concluded the drilling of a well in the North Sea offshore Norway but found no commercial amounts of hydrocarbons.

Equinor received a drilling permit from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) to drill the well back in late January 2021.

The well – designated 31/11-1 S – was drilled about 55 kilometres south of the Troll field in production licence 785 S in the North Sea and 100 kilometres southwest of Bergen.

The NPD said on Wednesday that the primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in the Johansen Formation from the Early Jurassic and the Statfjord Group from the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic.

The secondary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum and investigate the reservoir properties in the Sognefjord Formation, the Fensfjord Formation, and the Brent Group (Late to Middle Jurassic) and to investigate the source rock potential in this part of the Stord Basin. Another objective of the well was to evaluate reservoir properties concerning storing CO2.

The well encountered the Johansen Formation, about 65 metres thick, of which 48 metres were sandstone with moderate reservoir quality. In the upper part of the Statfjord Group, the well encountered 28 metres of sandstone with moderate reservoir quality.

In the secondary target, the well encountered the Sognefjord Formation with a thickness of about 275 metres, of which 65 metres were sandstone of moderate to good reservoir quality.

It also encountered the Fensfjord Formation, about 130 metres thick, of which 47 metres were sandstone with moderate to good reservoir quality. The Brent Group was not encountered.

Equinor classified the well as dry but did perform data acquisition. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned. This is the first exploration well in production licence 785 S. The licence was awarded to Equinor in APA2014.

The well was drilled to respective measured and vertical depths of 3,254 and 3,135 metres below sea level and was terminated in the lower part of the Statfjord Group from the Early Jurassic to Late Triassic.

The 31/11-1 S well was drilled by the Deepsea Atlantic drilling rig which will now drill production well 34/7-J4 AH on the Tordis field in production licence 089 in the North Sea also for Equinor.

To remind, before drilling the 31/11-1 S well, the Deepsea Atlantic drilled two Equinor wells near the Fram field in the North Sea. Both wells were classified as dry.