Equinor bites dust in Barents Sea well

Oil and gas giant Equinor has concluded the drilling of a well in the Barents Sea offshore Norway but the well is dry.

Equinor received a drilling permit from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) to drill a new well in the Barents Sea back in late March 2021.

The well 7322/6-1 S was drilled in production licence 722, about 320 kilometres north of Hammerfest and 45 kilometres northwest of the 7324/8-1 (Wisting) oil discovery in the Barents Sea.

The NPD said on Tuesday that the exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Middle and Upper Triassic reservoir rocks (the Snadd Formation), and in upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian reservoir rocks (the Ørn Formation).

The well 7322/6-1 S encountered two sandstone intervals in the Snadd Formation, measuring 12 and 23 metres, with poor to moderate reservoir quality.

In the Ørn Formation, the well encountered carbonate rocks (dolomites) over an interval of nearly 250 metres, with poor to moderate reservoir quality.

In the Realgrunnen Subgroup (Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic Age), the well encountered about 45 metres of sandstone, presumably with moderate to good reservoir quality.

The uppermost sandstone interval in the Snadd Formation contains traces of oil. The well is classified as dry. Data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.

This is the first exploration well in production licence 722, which was awarded in the 22nd licensing round in 2013.

The well 7322/6-1 S was drilled to respective vertical and measured depths of 3550 and 3817 metres below sea level and was terminated in the lower part of the Ørn Formation in the Upper Carboniferous. WThe water depth at the site is 439 metres. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

It was drilled by the Deepsea Nordkapp drilling rig, which will now drill wildcat well 7234/6-1 in production licence 858 in the Barents Sea, where Aker BP is the operator.