Statoil bites dust in Barents Sea

Norwegian oil major Statoil has hit dust in the Koigen Central wildcat well (7317/9-1) in the Barents Sea, offshore Norway.

To remind, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) gave Statoil a consent to drill the well using the Songa Enabler drilling rig in July. A consent to drill the well came from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) in early August.

The NPD said on Monday that the exploration well, labeled 7317/9-1, located in production license 718 in the Koigen Central prospect, was classified as dry.

The well was drilled about 100 kilometers northwest of the Johan Castberg discovery in the Barents Sea.

The primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic to Late Triassic reservoir rocks (the Realgrunn sub-group). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in Late to Middle Triassic reservoir rocks (Tubåen and Snadd formation), depending on the well result in the primary target.

Well 7317/9-1 encountered multiple sandstone layers in both exploration targets, totaling about 60 meters in the Realgrunn sub-group and about 50 meters that are preliminarily correlated to the Snadd formation. All sandstone layers have poor to no reservoir quality.

This is the first exploration well in production license 718, awarded in the 22nd licensing round in 2013. Statoil took samples and acquired data from the well which was drilled to a vertical depth of 1,468 with water depth at the site at 460 meters. The well will be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Well 7317/9-1 was drilled by Songa Enabler drilling rig which will now proceed to drill wildcat well 35/9-13 in production license 682 in the North Sea, where Bayerngas Norge AS is the operator.