Wintershall Dea strikes oil close to Maria field

Oil and gas company Wintershall Dea Norge has made an oil discovery near the Maria field in the Norwegian Sea.

The well 6406/3-10 is located on the Bergknapp prospect in production license 836 S where Wintershall Dea is the operator. The company was cleared to use the Scarabeo 8 rig to drill this well in late February 2020.

Wintershall Dea is in the process of concluding the drilling of wildcat well 6406/3-10. The well was drilled about 8 kilometers west of the Maria field in the Norwegian Sea and 200 kilometers north of Kristiansund, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on Tuesday.

According to the NPD, the primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Early and Middle Jurassic (the Ile Formation and the Tilje Formation). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Middle Jurrasic Age (the Garn Formation).

In the primary exploration target, well 6406/3-10 encountered hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone layers totaling about 35 meters in the Ile Formation, with poor reservoir quality. The well encountered a total oil column of 120 meters in the Tilje Formation, with sandstone layers totaling about 75 meters with poor to good reservoir quality. The oil/water contact was not encountered.

In the secondary exploration target, a total oil column of about 60 meters was encountered in the Garn Formation, with sandstone of poor to moderate reservoir quality. The oil/water contact was encountered at about 4095 meters below sea level.

Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery at between 4 and 15 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalents. The licensees will consider tying the discovery into existing infrastructure in the area.

The well was not formation tested, but data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.

This is the first exploration well in production license 836 S, which was awarded in APA 2015.

The well 6406/3-10 was drilled to a vertical depth of 4566 meters below sea level and was terminated in the Åre Formation from the Early Jurassic Age.

The water depth at the site is 313 meters. The well will now be temporarily plugged and abandoned.

The well 6406/3-10 was partially drilled by the West Mira drilling rig. The well was then temporarily plugged and abandoned before drilling was completed by the Scarabeo 8 drilling rig.

Wintershall Dea is the operator of the license with a 40%, and Spirit Energy and DNO Norge are its partners with a 30% interest each.

Hugo Dijkgraaf, Wintershall Dea Chief Technology Officer and responsible Executive Board member for global exploration, said: “This exciting discovery near existing infrastructure confirms the untapped potential of Norway as a core area for exploration, development, and production now and in the future.”