Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor has made an oil and gas discovery at its Egyptian Vulture offshore well in the Norwegian Sea, off Norway.
Equinor's partner Longboat Energy said the exploration well 6407/1-9 in the Norwegian Sea encountered light oil in the primary target in the Lower Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Intra-Lange Formation. The top of the reservoir was reached close to prognosis at a vertical depth of 3,684 meters below sea level with 13 meters net sand in a 37-meter oil-filled gross interval.
The upper part of the Lange sand interval has a high net to gross ratio and porosities in the order of 16 percent. An extensive program of data acquisition and sampling has been carried out and the preliminary analysis of the oil sample indicates a very light oil. The oil-water contact was not encountered, Longboat said.
Equinor's preliminary estimate of recoverable resources in the Egyptian Vulture discovery is 19 to 63 MMboe (gross) and the oil-in-place volume has been estimated at 220 to 440 MMboe (gross).
To remind, Longboat, a company formed by ex-Faroe Petroleum management, has previously said that the Egyptian Vulture well was targeting gross mean prospective resources of 103 mmboe with further potential upside to bring the total to 208 mmboe on a gross basis.
"Conservative recovery factors have been applied by the operator in calculating these preliminary resource estimates and further appraisal will be required to understand the flow potential of the reservoir and future development wells. This could significantly increase the resource estimate for this laterally extensive discovery measuring approximately 80 km2 as defined by the seismic amplitude anomaly," Longboat said.
Egyptian Vulture, drilled by the West Hercules drilling rig, sits in an area of significant infrastructure and export opportunities both for oil and gas. The well was drilled 20 km from the Åsgard field and 23 km from the Kristin field, both of which are also operated by Equinor and offer development options for Egyptian Vulture, according to Longboat.
The well reached a total vertical depth of 3,936 meters and will now be plugged and abandoned as planned.
Helge Hammer, Chief Executive of Longboat, said: "We are very pleased to have made a material light oil discovery in our second exploration well, Egyptian Vulture, following the Rodhette discovery announced only two weeks ago. The large areal extent and oil-in-place volume range demonstrate the very significant upside potential of this exciting discovery. We now look forward to working with the operator to mature the forward appraisal plan for Egyptian Vulture.