Statoil makes small oil discovery offshore Norway

Norwegian oil company Statoil has made a small oil discovery in the North Sea, offshore Norway. The well is located in the production licence 104, 150 kilometres west of Bergen.

The purpose of the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Tarbert Formation). The well encountered a 34-metre oil column in sandstone with moderate to good reservoir quality. The oil/water contact was encountered 3,242 metres below sea level.

Preliminary estimates of the size of the discovery range between one and two million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalents. According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the discovery will be developed together with the Oseberg Delta 2 project, which is under development, and the licensees are assessing a production well in the structure encountered by wildcat well 30/9-27 S.

This is the 26th exploration well drilled in production licence 104. The licence was awarded in the ninth licencing round. The well was drilled to a measured and vertical depth of 3,989 and 3,353 metres, respectively, below the sea surface and was terminated in Middle Jurassic rocks (the Ness Formation). The water depth at the site is 103 metres. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The well was drilled with the Songa Delta semi-submersible drilling rig, which will now drill development well 30/9-O-2 H in production licence 104, where Statoil Petroleum AS is the operator.

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