Shell takeover target BG Group has continued a dry exploration run offshore Norway with its latest exploration well near the Knarr field.
The 34/3-5 well, on production license 373 S, in 403m water depth, was drilled about 5km southeast of Knarr in the Northern North Sea, about 120km West of Florø.
The well was classified as a dry hole, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) and will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
It was drilled using the Transocean Searcher semisubmersible drilling rig, which in February had completed two wells for BG Group on the same license. Both wells, 34/3-4 S and 34/3-4 A, about 5km east of Knarr, were also classified as dry.
The Knarr field is UK-based BG Group’s latest hub offshore Norway. The field was brought online in March this year, via the Petrojarl Knarr floating production, storage and offloading vessel, leased from Teekay and moored about 120km offshore Norway. Knarr was discovered in 2008 and has 80 MMboe estimated gross recoverable reserves.
The latest well's objective was to prove petroleum in Early Jurassic reservoir rocks (Cook Formation). It encountered a gross Cook Formation interval of approximately 82m, of which 47m were good reservoir quality with traces of residual hydrocarbons interpreted, says the NDP.
The well was the seventh exploration and appraisal well in production license 373 S, which was awarded in APA 2005. It was drilled to a total vertical depth of 4253m below the sea surface (4275m measured depth), and terminated in the Lower Jurassic Amundsen Formation.
The Transocean Searcher will now be left in Kristiansund for about two months before moving to the North Sea, where it will move on to drill well 2/11-11 in production license 616. This will be Edison Norge’s first exploration well offshore Norway as operator.
BG Group, which is currently the subject of a US$70 billion takeover bid by oil major Shell, is the operator of Knarr, with a 45% working interest. Partners are Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (25%), Wintershall Norge (20%) and DEA Norge (10%).
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