Aker BP's North Sea Oil Find Deemed Not Commercially Viable "at Present Time"

Aker BP has made an oil discovery near the Ivar Aasen field in the North Sea, offshore Norway, but the volumes discovered are not seen as profitable "at present time."

The oil firm, as the operator of the production license 867 B, has completed the drilling of wildcat well 25/10-17 S. The well was drilled about 12 kilometers north of the Ivar Aasen field and 187 kilometers southwest of Haugesund.

The primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Hugin and Sleipner formations.

The secondary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in the Skagerrak Formation from the Triassic.

According to the Norwegian Petroleum directorate, the well 25/10-17 S encountered a 3-meter oil column in the Hugin Formation totaling 98 meters, 80 meters of which was sandstone of moderate reservoir quality. The oil/water contact was encountered at 3654 meters below sea level. 

In addition, residual oil (remaining petroleum) was encountered both over and under the oil column in the Hugin and Sleipner formations. The Skagerrak Formation was water-bearing.

Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 0.5 and 1.4 million Sm³ of recoverable oil equivalent. Initial assessments show that the discovery is not profitable at the present time, NPD said.

The well was not formation-tested, but data acquisition and sampling were carried out.

The Well 25/10-17 S was drilled to a vertical depth of 4057 meters below sea level and was terminated in the Skagerrak Formation in the Upper Triassic. The water depth at the site is 116 meters. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Aker BP used Saipem's Scarabeo 8 semi-submersible drilling rig, which will now drill wildcat well 16/1-25 S in production licence 1141 in the North Sea, where Aker BP ASA is the operator.