An oil discovery just north of the Norne field in the Norwegian Sea will be considered for development with the Norne production and storage ship. A well on the North Sea Verona prospect is dry.
Drilling of an exploration well on the Dompap prospect off the coast of Nordland county has been completed after proving oil.
A sidetrack drilled to establish the oil/water contact in this discovery is also in the process of completion.
The Dompap strike represents StatoilHydro’s first oil find in 2009, and the preliminary estimate for recoverable reserves is 25-50 million barrels.
“We achieved great success last year with exploration close to producing fields,” notes Tove Stuhr Sjøblom, head of exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf. “Making another interesting discovery in an area of this kind accordingly marks a good start to 2009.”
“Even if their volumes are modest compared with the big finds made earlier on the NCS, such strikes are important for maximising oil recovery by helping to extend the production life of installations.”
The wells proved an oil column of 110 metres in the Åre formation, with the sidetrack establishing the oil/water contact. Extensive data gathering and coring were undertaken.
The wells are the 22nd and 23rd in production licence 128, awarded in 1986 as part of Norway’s 10B licensing round.
“This discovery lies in an area where we’ve made a number of earlier finds,” explains Knut Harald Nygård, head of near-field exploration off Nordland. “We’ve pursued extensive exploration drilling in this licence, and the information gained has given us extensive knowledge of the area and improved our targeting.”
Exploration well 6608/10-12 was drilled to a vertical depth of 3,158 metres below sea level in 334 metres of water, terminating in Lower Jurassic rocks of the Åre formation.
The 6608-12 A sidetrack went down to a vertical depth of 2,931 metres below sea level to terminate in the same formation. The main well will be plugged and abandoned.
Drilling was conducted from Ocean Vanguard, which will next drill exploration well 35/6-1 S on the Grosso prospect in production licence 376 operated by StatoilHydro.
In addition to StatoilHydro as operator with 64.0%, licensees in production licence 128 are Eni with 11.5% and Petoro with 24.5%.
An exploration well on the Verona prospect, which lies 25 kilometres north-east of Ekofisk, has been completed without encountering hydrocarbons.
StatoilHydro is operator for production licences 296 (60% interest) and 355 (50%), with Maersk holding 40% and 50% respectively.
The well was drilled from West Epsilon, which is moving to production licence 265 in order to drill another well for StatoilHydro.