Shell fails to find hydrocarbons in North Sea well

Oil and gas major Shell has failed to find commercial volumes of hydrocarbons in a North Sea exploration well and the well is being plugged and abandoned.

The Edinburgh exploration well (30/14a- 5) was drilled in offshore UK license P255 where Shell is the operator and DNO and Spirit Energy are its partners. DNO entered the licence with the takeover of Faroe Petroleum in 2019.

The well, operated by Shell, was drilled through a joint well agreement covering four separate, contiguous licences, of which two are in the UK (P255 and P2401) and two in Norway (PL018ES and PL969).

DNO informed on Friday that the well is being plugged and abandoned having failed to encounter commercial quantities of hydrocarbons in the prospect. The well was drilled to a total depth of 16,500 feet and encountered two sandstones of Jurassic age but wireline logging indicated no movable hydrocarbons within the sandstones.

Data collected will be integrated with existing seismic data and further studies will be undertaken to assess the remaining potential within the licenses, DNO concluded.