Statoil Strikes Gas Near Gullfaks (Norway)

Statoil Petroleum AS, operator of production licence 050B, is in the process of completing the drilling of wildcat well 34/10-53 A. The well has been drilled about five kilometres west of the Gullfaks Sør field, in the northern part of the North Sea.

The well is a sidetrack from wildcat well 34/10-53 S, where a gas/condensate discovery was made earlier this year.

The purpose of the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Brent group).

Gas was encountered in an approx. 170-metre column in the upper part of the Brent group (the Tarbert formation). The well was not formation tested, but data collection and sampling was carried out. Preliminary estimates of the size of the discovery range between 0.4 and 1.2 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalents. The licensees are considering tie-in of the discovery to existing infrastructure in the Gullfaks area.

Production licence 050B was awarded as a supplement to the third licensing round in 1978. The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 3959 metres below sea level and terminated in the Dunlin group in Middle Jurassic rocks.

Water depth at the site is 136 metres. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Well 34/10-53 A was drilled by the Deepsea Atlantic drilling facility. The rig will now continue drilling for Statoil Petroleum AS in the southern part of the Gullfaks Sør field in production licence 050.

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Source: NPD, June 7, 2011;