Equinor comes up empty in North Sea duo

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has found no hydrocarbons in two wells, which were drilled using one of Odfjell Drilling’s rigs in the North Sea off the coast of Norway.

The wildcat wells 35/10-14 S and 35/10-14 A, also known as the Kvernbit/Mimung prospects, which the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) described as the first to be drilled in production license 1185, awarded in 2023, were drilled with Odfjell Drilling’s Deepsea Stavanger semi-submersible rig. Equinor is the operator of the license with a 40% stake while its partners are Vår Energi (20%), Sval Energi (20%), and Aker BP (20%).

While the primary exploration target for the wells was to prove petroleum in Upper and Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Kvernbit prospect (Viking Group) and the Mimung sør prospect (Brent Group), respectively, the secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in the Cook Formation in the Lower Jurassic.

The well 35/10-14 S encountered more than 80 meters of sandstone reservoir in the Upper Jurassic in the primary exploration target with poor reservoir properties. The Brent Group was 193 meters thick, 51 meters of which were sandstone layers with poor reservoir properties. The Cook Formation was 77 meters thick, 18 meters of which were sandstone layers, mainly with poor reservoir properties.

The Tarbert, Ness, Etive, and Rannoch formations were encountered in the well 35/10-14 A with a total thickness of 163 meters, 63 meters of which were sandstone layers with poor reservoir properties. The extensive data acquisition was carried out in both wells, including core sampling in the well 35/10-14 A.

The well 35/10-14 S was drilled to respective vertical and measured depths of 4,885 meters and 4,925 meters below sea level and was terminated in the Johansen Formation. The well 35/10-14 A was drilled to respective vertical and measured depths of 4,275 and 4,710 meters below sea level and was terminated in the Rannoch Formation in the Mid Jurassic.

While Equinor had no luck in these two wells, the firm recently made an oil and gas discovery in an area containing previous commercial discoveries in the Norwegian North Sea. These drilling activities were done by another one of Odfjell Drilling’s rigs.