Norwegian oil company Aker BP has made an oil and gas discovery 14 km northeast of the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea and 220 kilometers west of Sandnessjøen, Norway.
The wildcat well 6507/3-15 encountered an oil and gas column totaling about 115 meters in the Fangst and Båt groups, 40 meters of which were in sandstone layers with good reservoir quality in the primary exploration target in the Fangst Group, and about 55 meters in sandstone layers with moderate to good reservoir quality in the secondary exploration target in the Båt Group.
According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, there was an additional 100 meters of sandstone layers in the Båt Group with moderate to good reservoir quality. The respective gas/oil and oil/water contacts were encountered at 1980 meters and 2021 meters below sea level.
Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 1.7 and 5.7 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent. The licensees in production licence 941 will consider producing the discovery via the Skarv field, which produces oil via the Skarv FPSO.
The well 6507/3-15 was drilled to a vertical depth of 2197 meters below sea level and was terminated in the Åre Formation in the Lower Jurassic. Aker BP used ODfjell Drilling's Deepsea Nordkapp semi-submersible drilling rig for the operation.
The water depth is 348 meters. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
The Deepsea Nordkapp will now move on to drill wildcat well 6507/3-16 in production licence 941 in the Norwegian Sea, where Aker BP ASA is the operator.