Shell drills duster in Norwegian Sea

Oil company Shell has failed to find hydrocarbons at its wildcat well 6304/3-1 in the Norwegian Sea.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate on Wednesday said the well, located in the license 832, was dry.

Shell used the Scarabeo 8 semi-submersible drilling rig for the operation, hoping to prove petroleum in Lower Paleocene to Upper Cretaceous reservoir rocks in the Egga and Springar formation.

According to the NPD, the well encountered a total of about 9-meter thick reservoir rocks in the Egga and Springar formation with poor reservoir quality.

This is the first exploration well in production license 832. The license was awarded in APA 2015.

NPD said the well was drilled to a vertical depth of 3604 meters below the sea surface and was terminated in the Nise formation in the Upper Cretaceous. Water depth at the site is 1228 meters. The well be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Worth noting, this is the second dry well in a row drilled by Shell using the Scarabeo 8 rig. NPD in July said Shell had hit a dry well near the Knarr field in the North Sea.

The Scarabeo 8 drilling facility, which will now drill wildcat well 6406/6-5 in production license 225 B in the Norwegian Sea where Total E&P Norge is the operator.

The operation is expected to take 90 days to complete. The well will target a prospect named Jasper in a water depth of around 267 meters.

Offshore Energy Today Staff