No hydrocarbons for Equinor in Norwegian Sea wildcat

Norway’s state-owned energy giant Equinor has found no hydrocarbons in an exploration well, which was drilled using one of Transocean’s rigs in the Norwegian Sea off the coast of Norway.

The wildcat well 6608/10-R-2 H, known as the Løvmeis prospect, which was drilled by the Transocean Encourage rig about 15 kilometers northeast of the Norne field on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), has proven to be dry.

This is the first well in the Norwegian Sea’s production license 1013, awarded in the awards in predefined areas (APA) in 2018, where Equinor is the operator with Orlen Upstream and Petrolia Noco as its partners.

According to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD), the objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Ile and Tofte formations.

The wildcat well 6608/10-R-2 H, which was drilled 30 meters into the Ile Formation and encountered sandstone with good reservoir quality, hit vertical and measured depths of respective 2,346 meters and 3,812 meters below sea level and was terminated in the Ile Formation in the Middle Jurassic.

The water depth at the site is 358 meters. As the well is classified as dry, it has been permanently plugged and abandoned. Transocean Encourage is a harsh-environment semi-submersible rig of GVA 4000 NCS design. The 2016-built rig can accommodate up to 130 people. 

Equinor extended multiple contracts in May 2022, including the one with Halliburton for work on the Transocean Encourage rig, which got hired on a nine-well contract with six more optional wells. The rig is expected to stay with the firm until November 2025, when it is due to start operations in Norway with an undisclosed company.

Equinor is working on progressing multiple projects in and outside Norway, such as the ones in Brazil, where a new construction milestone was recently recorded.