Oil and gas companies Equinor and ConocoPhillips have recently drilled dry wells in the North Sea, offshore Norway, targeting the Poseidon and Lamba prospects, respectively, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
Equinor, the operator of production licence 1104, drilled the wildcat well 30/3-11 S (Poseidon prospect), some 18 kilometers north of the Oseberg Øst field in the North Sea and 145 kilometers northwest of Bergen.
The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Brent Group).
The well encountered about 120 meters of sandstone with poor reservoir quality in the Tarbert, Ness and Etive formations. In addition, about 75 meters of sandstone were encountered with poor reservoir quality in the Oseberg Formation.
According to the NPD, the well is dry with traces of petroleum in all exploration targets. Extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.
This is the first exploration well in production licence 1104.
The well 30/3-11 S was drilled to a vertical depth of 4593 meters below sea level, and was terminated in the Drake Formation in the Middle Jurassic.
The water depth at the site is 185 meters. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.
Well 30/3-11 S was drilled by the Deepsea Stavanger semi-submersible drilling rig. The rig is now moving on to drill wildcat well 6607/12-5 in production licence 943 in the Norwegian Sea, where Equinor Energy AS is the operator.
ConocoPhillips' Wildcat Dry, with Oil Shows
ConocoPhillips, as the operator of the production licence 782 S, has concluded the drilling of wildcat well 25/7-10 (Lamba prospect).
The well was drilled about 30 kilometers northwest of the Balder field in the central part of the North Sea and 205 kilometers west of Stavanger.
The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Upper Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Intra-Draupne Formation).
The well encountered thin sandstone layers totaling about 14 meters in the Draupne Formation, with poor reservoir quality. Oil was collected from an isolated sandstone layer with limited extension, which is why no recoverable volumes can be estimated from this interval.
In the Heather Formation (Middle Jurassic), the well encountered 29 meters of sandstone with poor reservoir quality.
The well is classified as dry, with oil shows. The licensees will assess the result from the well as regards further prospectivity in the production licence. Data acquisition and sampling have been carried out. This is the second well in production licence 782 S.
The well 25/7-10 was drilled to a vertical depth of 4470 meters below sea level, and was terminated in the Heather Formation in the Middle Jurassic.
The water depth at the site is 127 meters. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned. The well 25/7-10 was drilled with the Transocean Norge semi-submersible drilling rig.