No oil for Harbour Energy after two-well North Sea campaign

Harbour Energy, a UK oil and gas company formed through a merger between Chrysaor and Premier Oil, has drilled a dry exploration well on the Ilder prospect off Norway, ending a two-well campaign with disappointing results.

The exploration well 15/12-26 is located in the PL973 licence in the North Sea.

Chrysaor Norge, a Norwegian unit of Harbour Energy and the operator, holds 50 per cent working interest, OKEA 30 per cent, and Petoro 20 per cent interest in the PL973 licence.

OKEA said in an update over the weekend that drilling operations on the Ilder exploration well 15/12-26 were being concluded.

The well is characterised as a dry well and will now be plugged and abandoned, OKEA added.

Harbour Energy, then Chrysaor, received drilling permits from the Norwegian authorities for two wildcat wells, 15/12-25 (Jerv) and 15/12-26 (Ilder), back in January 2021.

Both wells were drilled using the COSLInnovator semi-submersible rig.

The Jerv exploration well, located about seven kilometres northwest of the Rev field, was spud on 18 February 2021 as the first well of the two-well programme.

By late March, drilling operations on the Jerv well were completed but the well failed to find commercial hydrocarbons.

The COSLInnovator rig then moved on to drill the Ilder well, located about 10 kilometres south of the 15/12-21 (Grevling) oil discovery.

This well has now also been completed but considering that it is also dry this means that Harbour Energy’s two-well campaign in the North Sea has not been successful.

When it comes to the rig, following a letter of intent in July 2020, Chrysaor had signed a drilling contract with COSL for the use of the sixth-generation rig COSLInnovator back in August 2020.

Under the contract, the rig was supposed to drill 2-3 wells in the North Sea.

In related news, COSL Drilling Europe has recently signed a four-year-long frame contract with OKEA for the use of COSL’s energy-efficient drilling rigs at the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

In addition, OKEA has the right to exercise up to four one-year options, which gives a potential of a total contract length of eight years.

As part of the agreement, COSL Drilling Europe will be the exclusive drilling rig provider of OKEA for operations at the NCS.