DNO Norge makes minor oil find in North Sea

Norwegian operator DNO Norge has encountered a minor oil discovery on the Gomez prospect during the drilling of a wildcat well offshore Norway, which has now been concluded.

The wildcat well 2/5-15 is located in production licence 006 C in the North Sea. The operator explained on Tuesday that the well was drilled about 280 kilometres southwest of Stavanger and 14 kilometres east of the Ekofisk field in the southern North Sea.

The drilling was announced in August after the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) granted a drilling permit to DNO Norge for the well. The drilling was completed using the Borgland Dolphin drilling rig.

The well was supposed to prove petroleum in Palaeocene reservoir rocks with intra Lista and Våle Formation sandstones. It was confirmed the oil was encountered in the primary target in the Våle formation, 23 metres of which was homogeneous sandstone containing poor to moderate reservoir quality.

There was no oil/water contact. The oil mobility within preliminary analyses indicates significant uncertainty. Therefore, further studies are required before a resource estimate can be made for the discovery.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, DNO explained that there was uncertainty based on preliminary assessments on whether the reservoir can be commercially produced. In addition, no estimate of recoverable volumes has been established at this stage. DNO, as the operator, and Aker BP, as its partner, will study the extensive data collected during the operation before deciding the next steps.

The well was not formation-tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out, according to the NPD. This is the fourth exploration well in production licence 006 C, which was carved out from PL 006 in 2000.

The well 2/5-15 was drilled to a vertical depth of 3292 metres below sea level and was terminated in the Ekofisk Formation from the Palaeocene. The water depth at the site is 67 metres and the well will be plugged and abandoned.

The Borgland Dolphin rig will now drill wildcat well 6306/3-1 S for INEOS E&P Norge in production licence 937 in the southern part of the Norwegian Sea.