Norway: Dry hole for Equinor in North Sea

Norwegian oil firm Equinor has drilled a duster at the offshore exploration well 32/4-3 S in the North Sea, offshore Norway.

The well, in the production license 921, was drilled about 30 kilometers southeast of the Troll field in the North Sea and 60 kilometers northwest of Bergen.

The primary exploration target for the well, in a water depth of 292 meters, was to prove petroleum in Upper Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Sognefjord Formation).

The secondary exploration target was to prove gas in Middle and Lower Jurassic, as well as Upper Triassic reservoir rocks (the Brent, Dunlin and Statfjord Groups). Another objective of the well was to evaluate the ability of the reservoirs to store CO2, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said.

In the primary exploration target, the well encountered a layer of about 155 meters of reservoir rocks in the Sognefjord Formation, with about 115 meters of sandstone of good to very good reservoir quality.

The well also encountered sandstones in the Jurassic and Upper Triassic with a thickness of about 60 meters in the Fensfjord Formation, 35 meters in the Krossfjord Formation, 40 meters in the Ness Formation, 45 meters in the Johansen Formation, 7 meters in the Statfjord Group and 95 meters in the Lunde Formation, the NPD said.

“The reservoir quality varied from moderate to very good. The well is dry, without traces of petroleum,” the NPD added.

Extensive volumes of data have been collected and samples have been taken, in part to test the sealing capacity of the Draupne Formation in the Upper Jurassic and the storage potential for CO2 in the reservoir rocks, NPD said, without providing info on what the CO2 storage tests discovered.

The well was drilled to respective vertical and measured depths of 1969 and 1986 meters below sea level, and it was terminated in the Lunde Formation in the Upper Triassic. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The well 32/4-3 S was drilled by the West Hercules semi-submersible drilling rig, which will now drill wildcat well 6611/1-1 in production license 896 in the Norwegian Sea, where DEA Norge AS is the operator.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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