Statoil hits minor gas/condensate discovery offshore Norway

Norwegian oil company Statoil has completed the drilling of wildcat well 30/11-13, located offshore Norway. The well proved to be a minor gas/condensate discovery. 

Statoil, the operator of production licence 272 in the North Sea offshore Norway, started drilling the wildcat well in May.

The well was drilled eight kilometres southeast of the 30/11-8 S (Krafla) discovery and about 27 kilometres south of the Oseberg South facility in the North Sea.

According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), a government agency whose task is to manage the oil and gas resources on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, the primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Tarbert formation). The secondary exploration target, the agency said, was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Ness formation).

The agency informed that the well encountered gas columns at two levels in the top part of the Tarbert formation, a total of 5 and 31 metres, respectively, of which 4 and 22 metres had good to moderate reservoir properties. The secondary exploration target in the Ness formation is aquiferous.

The preliminary estimation of the size of the discovery is between one and three million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalents. The discovery will be included in the evaluation of a new field development along with previous discoveries in the area.

Data has been collected and samples were taken from the well.

The well 30/11-13 was drilled to a vertical depth of 3313 metres below the sea surface and was terminated in the Ness formation. It is the fourth exploration well in production licence 272 which awarded in the North Sea Awards in 2001.

Water depth is 106 metres. The well will be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Well 30/11-13 was drilled by Songa Offshore’s semi-sub drilling rig Songa Delta, which will continue the drilling campaign by drilling wildcat well 30/11-14.