Norway's Equinor has made a minor, but potentially commercial, oil discovery in the production license 089 in the North Sea around 160 kilometers west of Florø, Norway.
The objective of the exploration well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Middle Jurassic Age (the Rannoch Formation).
According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the well 34/7-E-4 AH encountered an oil column of about 20 meters in the Rannoch Formation, 18 meters of which are sandstone of good reservoir quality. The oil/water contact was encountered at a depth of 2479 meters.
"The preliminary calculation of the size of the discovery is between 0.9 and 1.5 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil. So far, the discovery is presumed to be commercial and will be considered for tie-in to the Vigdis field," the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said Tuesday.
The well, located just northwest of the Vigdis Vest field, was not formation tested, but data acquisition and sampling were carried out.
This is the 41st exploration well in production license 089. Production license 089 was awarded in 1984 in the 8th licensing round.
Well 34/7-E-4 AH was drilled as a shallow sidetrack from existing development well 34/7-E-4 H on the Vigdis field, to a vertical depth of 2517 meters below sea level and a measured depth of 4459 meters. The well was terminated in the Rannoch Formation from the Middle Jurassic Age.
Water depth at the site is 283 meters. The reservoir section will be temporarily plugged back.
The well was drilled by the Transocean Norge semi-submersible drilling rig. The rig will now drill a development well on the Visund Sør field in the northern part of the North Sea, where Equinor Energy AS is the operator.