North Energy to spud its first well as operator in 2015?

Norwegian explorer North Energy is looking forward to participating in several wells over the coming year and is also working for a possible drilling project as operator during 2015.

The company says it has amended its exploration strategy by giving greater weight to specialist geophysical studies following geological assessments. Within six months, the specific and long-term moves it has made will be starting to show real results, North Energy said in a statement.

Access to the EMGS library of electromagnetic survey data for the Barents Sea combines with extensive analysis of low-frequency information and resonance analysis of seismic survey material with Rex Virtual Drilling (RVD).

This has contributed to changing the internal ranking of prospects based on probability and value.

EM data are now being acquired from PL 509 in the North Sea, operated by North Energy, in line with the new strategy of verifying the probability of a discovery and thereby the likelihood of drilling a well.

During the fourth quarter this year, North Energy will be a partner in, what they describe as, a very interesting well operated by Statoil in PL 713 west of the Johan Castberg area of the Barents Sea.

This will test Cretaceous/Tertiary sandstones in the Bear Island Basin. Known as the Pingvin prospect, this structure lies at a shallow depth.

Good indications that hydrocarbons are present have been obtained with ordinary seismic surveys as well as through the use of RVD and electromagnetic data.

Drilling on the Tvillingen South prospect in PL 510 in the Norwegian Sea is now expected at the earliest in the first quarter of next year. The primary target of this well will be to prove hydrocarbons in Jurassic sandstones.

North Energy says it expects to participate in a further one-two wells in the Barents Sea and one-two in the Norwegian/North Seas during 2015.

Operator Tullow has resolved to drill on the Zumba prospect in PL 591 in the Norwegian Sea, where North Energy is a licensee after recently farming in with a 10 per cent interest.

This well will test Upper Jurassic (Rogn equivalent) sandstones in the northern part of the Grinda Graben. The prospect lies in an area with several oil and gas/condensate discoveries.

North Energy also added it was considering whether to spud its first well as operator during 2015.