Aker BP bites the dust in North Sea well

Norwegian oil and gas player Aker BP has found no hydrocarbons at a well in the North Sea off the coast of Norway. One of Odfjell Drilling’s semi-submersible rigs was in charge of drilling operations.

According to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD), Aker BP and its partners have drilled wildcat well 34/6-7 S at the Kaldafjell prospect in the northern part of the North Sea.

The drilling activities at the first exploration well in production license 932, which was awarded in 2018, were undertaken by the Deepsea Nordkapp rig, about 40 kilometers north of the Visund field.

While Aker BP is the operator of the license, Equinor and Vår Energi are its partners. The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Cook Formation.

The wildcat well 34/6-7 S encountered the Cook Formation in around 117 meters of reservoir rocks, 90 meters of which were sandstone with moderate to good reservoir quality.

After being drilled to a vertical depth of 4,472 meters below sea level, the well was terminated in the Burton Formation in the Lower Jurassic. The water depth at the site is 403 meters.

As the well was dry, it has been permanently plugged and abandoned. Odfjell Drilling was one of the three contractors that entered into drilling and wells alliance agreements in January 2023 with Aker BP for work on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

The 2009-built Deepsea Nordkapp, former Stena Midmax, semi-submersible rig was contracted to the end of 2024 with an option to extend the contract further. The two players agreed to prolong the rig’s work in December 2023 for two years.

This is a sixth-generation dynamically positioned harsh environment and winterized semi-submersible of a Moss-enhanced CS 60E design, which Odfjell Drilling bought from Samsung Heavy in April 2018.

Aker BP is working on developing multiple projects, including the Valhall PWP-Fenris and Yggdrasil projects in the North Sea on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).