Aker BP has drilled a dry hole close to the Volund field in the Norwegian North Sea, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).
Well 24/9-11 S was drilled using the Transocean Arctic semisubmersible drilling rig in 122m water depth, in license 150 B, awarded in 2010.
The well was drilled about 7km west of the Volund field, 11km southwest of the Alvheim field and 230km northwest of Stavanger.
It was aiming to prove petroleum in Upper Palaeocene reservoir rocks (the Hermod formation) and encountered a 7m-thick sandstone layer with very good reservoir properties and some thin, partially cemented sandstone layers above the main reservoir, with partially good reservoir properties, says the NPD.
The reservoir rocks have only faint traces of oil, but the well was classified by the NPD as dry.
The well - the first exploration well on the license - has now been permanently plugged and abandoned.
The Transocean Arctic will now move to drill observation well 24/6-A-6 H in production license 088 BS on the Alvheim field, where Aker BP is also the operator.