Lundin Norway has completed a successful appraisal well on the southeastern section of the Edvard Grieg field offshore Norway.
The well, 16/1-23 S, in license 338, was drilled using the Orwan Viking jackup rig in 108m water depth, 2.4km southeast of the Edvard Grieg platform, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).
The field was proven in the autumn of 2007 and consists of Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic reservoir rocks. Prior to well 16/1-23 S being drilled, the operator's resource estimate for the field was 29.8 MMcu m of recoverable oil. The well has increased those resources by about 1-8 MMcu m recoverbable, according to the NPD.
The purpose of the well was to investigate reservoir rocks, reservoir properties and the oil/water contact as regards delineating the south-eastern section of the Edvard Grieg field. In addition, the purpose was to optimize the drainage strategy for the best possible location of production wells in this area.
The well 16/1-23 S encountered a total oil column of 67m in conglomerate sandstone with moderate to good reservoir quality. The oil/water contact was encountered 1933.5m below the sea surface, which is 5.5m shallower than the contact in the rest of the field.
Extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out. A total of five small-scale formation tests (mini drill stem tests) have been carried out in the oil and water zone, with test production of 1m intervals through the drilling string. The tests in the oil zone showed good flow properties, whereas the flow rate was moderate in the water zone.
This is the 10th exploration well in production license 338 and the seventh exploration well on the Edvard Grieg field. The license was awarded in APA 2004. A plan for development and operation (PDO) for the Edvard Grieg field was submitted to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy on 16 January 2012.