Equinor drills duster in Barents Sea

Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor has concluded the drilling of wildcat well 7132/2-1, targeting the Gjøkåsen Shallow prospect in the Barents Sea offshore Norway. The well was dry. 

Equinor received a drilling permit from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) to drill the exploration well back in December 2018.

The well was drilled about 175 kilometers north of Vardø, in the southeastern part of the Barents Sea in production license 857 where Equinor is the operator with a working interest of 40 percent. Partners in PL857 are Lundin Norway, Aker BP, and Petoro with a 20 percent working interest each.

Announcing the completion of the well, the NPD said on Tuesday that the primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Middle and Early Jurassic Age (the Stø, Nordmela, Tubåen and Fruholmen formation). The secondary exploration target was reservoir rocks from the Early Cretaceous and Late Triassic Age (upper part of the Snadd formation).

In the primary exploration target, well 7132/2-1 encountered about 15 meters of sandstone reservoir with good reservoir quality in the Støformasjonen. In the Nordmela, Tubåen and Fruholmen formation, the well encountered about 25 meters of sandstone reservoir with very good reservoir quality. The well is dry.

No reservoir rocks were encountered in the secondary exploration target in the Lower Cretaceous. In the upper part of the Snadd formation, the well encountered a water-filled sandstone reservoir totaling about 30 meters with moderate to good reservoir quality.

This was the first exploration well in production license 857, which was awarded in the 23rd licensing round in 2016.

The well 7132/2-1 was drilled to a vertical depth of 852 meters below the sea surface and was terminated in the upper part of the Snadd formation in the Late Triassic. Water depth at the site is 293 meters. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The well was drilled by the West Hercules drilling rig, which will now drill the Gjøkåsen Deep exploration well 7132/2-2 in the same production license for which it already has a drilling permit and safety consent for the use of the rig.