OMV makes gas/condensate discoveries in Norwegian Sea

OMV Norge, a subsidiary of the Austrian oil company OMV, has made gas/condensate discoveries in both the Hades and Iris prospects located offshore Norway.

OMV Norge is the operator of production licences 644 and 644 B in the Norwegian Sea where the wildcat wells 6506/11-10 is located. The company is in the process of completing the drilling of the wildcat well.

According to a Wednesday statement by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), the well was drilled about 5 kilometers north-west of the Morvin field in the central part of the Norwegian Sea and 245 kilometers north-west of Kristiansund.

The well’s primary and secondary exploration targets were to prove petroleum in the Lower Cretaceous (Lange formation) and Middle Jurassic (Garn formation), respectively.

As detailed by NPD, in the primary exploration target, the well encountered a gas/condensate column totaling about 35 meters in the Lange formation. 15 meters of this constitutes the reservoir, which consists of sandstone with moderate to good reservoir properties. The gas/water contact was not encountered. Preliminary estimates indicate that the size of the discovery in the Lange formation is between 3 and 18 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalents.

The directorate further said that, in the secondary exploration target, the well encountered a gas/condensate column totaling about 95 meters in the Garn formation. 85 meters of this constitutes the reservoir, which consists of sandstone with variable reservoir quality from moderate to very good. The gas/water contact was encountered at 4295 meters below sea level. Preliminary estimates indicate that the size of the discovery in the Garn formation is between 3 and 21 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalents.

The licensees will consider delimiting the discovery with a view towards potential future development.

The well was not formation-tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling were carried out. This is the first exploration well in production licencse 644 B. This license was awarded in APA 2011.

The well 6506/11-10 was drilled to a vertical depth of 4513 meters below the sea surface and was terminated in the Ror formation in the Lower Jurassic. It will now be permanently plugged and abandoned. Water depth is 342 meters.

OMV has a 30% interest, Faroe Petroleum Norge 20%, Statoil 40%, and Spirit Energy Norge the remaining 10% interest in the licenses.

Graham Stewart, Chief Executive of Faroe Petroleum, commented: “We are very pleased to announce significant discoveries in both the Hades and Iris prospects; both are well in excess of pre-drill estimates.”

Stewart added: “It is extremely gratifying to see both of these prospects delivering significant discoveries, further confirming Faroe’s consistent and industry-leading exploration track record, which has directly and indirectly generated approximately 75% of our 2P reserves.”

The well was drilled by the Deepsea Bergen drilling rig, which will now move on to drill appraisal well 15/3-10 on the 15/3-4 Sigrun gas/oil discovery in production license 025 in the central part of the North Sea, where Statoil Petroleum is the operator. Statoil recently got a consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority to drill the Sigrun an appraisal with the Deepsea Bergen drilling rig.