Wintershall Finds Oil in PL 418, Offshore Norway

Wintershall Norge AS, operator of production licence 418, is in the process of completing the drilling of wildcat well 35/9-7. The well has been drilled about 17 kilometres southwest of the Gjøa field in the North Sea.

The purpose of the well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rock from the Upper Jurassic. The well proved light oil in two sandstone strata at 90 and 14 metres with good reservoir quality in the Heather formation in the Upper Jurassic. Preliminary estimates of the size of the discovery range between 10 and 25 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil.

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

Martin Bachmann, Member of the Wintershall Board of Executive Directors responsible for Exploration and Production comments: ”The Skarfjell discovery is another important milestone for Wintershall and adds further growth potential to our portfolio on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. We are confident of the quality of our projects both in exploration and development and continue to strongly pursue our ambitious targets for the northern North Sea.”

Wintershall, with a portfolio of over 40 licenses on the NCS including more than 20 operatorships, aims to raise its daily production on the Norwegian and British continental shelf from its current level of around 4,000 barrels to 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) by 2015. Bernd Schrimpf, General Manager of Wintershall Norge AS, states: ”The Skarfjell discovery is very exciting and the resource potential significant, although this can only be verified with appraisal drilling. Skarfjell can serve as a focus point for other discoveries in the area and will further strengthen our position in a future development consortium.”

The well is the first exploration well in production licence 418. The licence was awarded in APA 2006. The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2976 metres below sea level and was terminated in the Rannock formation in rocks from the Middle Jurassic. Water depth at the site is 368 metres. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Well 35/9-7 was drilled by the drilling facility Songa Delta, which will proceed to production licence 375 B to drill appraisal well 33/6-3 S for Suncor Energy Norge AS.

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Source: NPD, April 16, 2012; Image: Songa Offshore