No luck for OMV as its North Sea wildcat comes up dry

OMV Norge, a Norwegian subsidiary of Austria-headquartered oil and gas player OMV, has failed to find hydrocarbons at its exploration well in the northern part of the North Sea, resulting in its plug and abandonment.

The well 35/6-6, targeting the Horatio prospect, was the first to be drilled in production license 1109 under the permit secured in January 2025. The well is located 20 kilometres northwest of the Gjøa field.

According to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD), the well was drilled to a vertical depth of 3840 metres below sea level, with water depth of 353 metres at the site. Since it was characterized as dry, the well was permanently plugged and abandoned.

OMV Norge, which holds a 30% interest, is the operator of the license, with partners DNO Norge (30%), Pandion Energy (20%), and Aker BP (20%). Thanks to a recent partial stake swap, OKEA got DNO’s 10% interest in the license.

As stated by NOD, the primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Lower Cretaceous reservoir rocks in the Agat Formation. The well encountered the Agat Formation with a total thickness of about 176 meters, where a total of 79 meters was sandstone layers with poor to moderate reservoir quality.

The secondary exploration target entailed proving petroleum in Lower Cretaceous reservoir rocks in the Åsgard Formation. Around 137 meters were registered in the secondary exploration target, a total of 75 meters of which were sandstone layers with poor to moderate quality.

The well was drilled using the Transocean Norge semi-submersible rig, which secured a 17-well contract in Norway in September 2022 for drilling of all firm and additional potential wells in the period 2023 to 2027.