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Statoil drills duster in Norwegian Sea

May 20, 2015

Faroe Petroleum, a partner in the Statoil-operated Bister exploration well in the Norwegian Sea has said that drilling has reached target depth, and the well found no hydrocarbons.

The Bister exploration well 6407/8-7 spudded on 27 April 2015 and reached total vertical depth of 2,990 metres below sea level in the Åre Jurassic formation. This was followed by side-track 6407/8-7A which was drilled to a total vertical depth of 2,770 metres below sea level.

The well and side-track targeted hydrocarbons in the Jurassic, Ile, Tilje and Åre formations (analogous to the Hyme oil field and Snilehorn reservoirs) and whilst good quality reservoirs were confirmed, no hydrocarbons were encountered at this location.

The Bister prospect is located in the Norwegian Sea in Licence PL 348/C, which is adjacent to the 2013 Snilehorn discovery (PL 348B) and nearby the producing Njord field and Hyme field (PL 348) (all Faroe 7.5%) and the results from the well will be used to calibrate the seismic interpretations in the licence, which still contains promising exploration targets. Statoil Petroleum AS is the operator of the PL348 licences and the Njord field.

The Bister well was operated by Statoil (35%) using the Transocean Spitsbergen drilling rig with partners GDF SUEZ E&P Norge AS (15%), E.ON E&P Norge AS (17.5%), Core Energy AS (22.5%) and VNG Norge AS (2.5%) and will now be plugged and abandoned as planned.

Graham Stewart, Chief Executive of Faroe Petroleum commented: “Whilst the results for the Bister exploration well are disappointing, this was an opportunity to add further resources to an already resource rich licence, which includes the producing Hyme field and the significant 2013 Snilehorn discovery.

“This is the second well in our 2015 exploration programme, following the successful completion of the Skirne East discovery last month. During the coming months we also expect to start drilling the first of two follow-up wells at the significant Pil discovery (Faroe 25%) on the Blink and Boomerang prospects.”