Vår Energi in Goliat West appraisal success

Vår Energi has found oil and gas at its appraisal well 7122/7-7 S on the Goliat oil field in the Barents Sea offshore Norway.

Vår Energi, established in December 2018, through a merger between Point Resources and Eni Norge, drilled the well about 2 kilometers south of the Goliat floating production, storage and offloading installation (FPSO), 90 kilometers northwest of Hammerfest.

The primary exploration target for the well was to delineate the Goliat field by proving additional resources in Lower Jurassic and Upper Triassic reservoir rocks (the Tubåen and Fruholmen formation in the Realgrunn sub-group). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks in the Upper Triassic (the Snadd formation).

The well encountered a total oil and gas column of 18 meters in the Tubåen formation. Effective reservoir rocks amount to 13 meters, of which 8 meters with gas and 5 meters with oil in sandstone with very good reservoir quality. The oil/water contact was not encountered. In the Fruholmen formation, the well encountered a total oil column of 33 meters, of which 15 meters of effective reservoir rocks in sandstone of good reservoir quality. The oil/water contact was encountered at 1145 meters. NPD has said that 25 meters of the Snadd formation were drilled, and the formation proved to be aquiferous and of variable reservoir quality.

Recoverable resources are estimated to be 0.7 – 2.2 million standard cubic meters oil (4.4 – 13.8million barrels of oil – Mbbl). Total volumes in place are estimated to be between 2 and 7 Mscm (13 – 44 Mbbl).  Vår Energi will consider tying the additional resources to the Goliat FPSO in the near future.

The operator said that resource estimates for Goliat before the drilling of the well had already increased to 31.5 Mscm (198 Mbbl), from 28.0 million Mscm (176 Mbbl) at the time of the PDO. Goliat West will further increase the resource estimates on Goliat.

Kristin Kragseth, CEO in Vår Energi said: “Goliat is the first infrastructure for oil production in the Barents Sea and is of strategic importance for the further development of the region. The history of the Norwegian continental shelf demonstrates that development of smaller discoveries are progressed once the infrastructure is in place. The Goliat West discovery will add to the profitability of Goliat and provides evidence for the future potential for this part of the Barents Sea. I am very pleased that we can start the year in this way for Vår Energi and that our near-field exploration strategy for the Goliat area is paying off.

“The Goliat West appraisal well is a successful outcome of Vår Energi’s near-field exploration strategy, which will enable a fast-track development of incremental reserves through a subsea tieback to the Goliat FPSO, increasing the oil recovery in the area and extending the production horizon for the Goliat field,” says Denis Palermo, VP Exploration in Vår Energi.

Vår Energi operates PL 229 and the oil-producing Goliat field with an interest of 65 percent, together with Equinor Energy AS as partner.

This is the 8th exploration well in production license 229. Water depth at the site is 379 meters.  The well was drilled by Seadrill’s West Hercules semi-submersible drilling rig, which will now drill wildcat well 7132/2-1 in production license 857 in the Barents Sea, where Equinor Energy AS is the operator.