Drilling of exploration well 34/8-16 S completed

Statoil Petroleum AS, operator of production licence 120, has announced it has completed drilling of exploration well 34/8-16 S. The well was drilled on the east flank of the Visund field in the northern part of the North Sea, and about 140 km northwest of Bergen.

The primary exploration target for 34/8-16 S was to prove gas and/or gas condensate in the Middle Triassic (the Lomvi formation). The secondary exploration target was to investigate additional resources in Lower to Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Statfjord and Brent Group) and Upper Triassic reservoir rocks (the Lunde formation).

The well encountered an oil/gas/condensate column of about 85 m in the Lunde formation, 40 m of which were of moderate to good reservoir quality. The Brent group is not present. Preliminary calculations of the size of the discovery are between 0.4 and 1.1 million m³ of recoverable oil equivalents. The licensees will consider further development of the discovery in the context of other potential additional resources.

The well was not formation tested, but comprehensive data collection and sampling were carried out.

This is the 26th exploration well drilled under production licence 120. Well 34/8-16 S was drilled to a vertical and measured depth of 3875 and 3830 m below sea level, respectively, and was terminated in the Hegre group in the Triassic. The water depth at the site is 380 m. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Edited from press release by Angharad Lock

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/exploration/20112015/drilling-of-exploration-well-34-8-16-s-finished-487/