Equinor Drills Dry Well in the Barents Sea

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Norwegian energy company Equinor has come up dry in the drilling of its first wildcat well in production licence 857 in the southeastern part of the Barents Sea.

Equinor, as operator of production licence area Gjøkåsen, drilled 7132/2-1 targeting the Gjøkåsen Shallow prospect about 175 kilometers north of Vardø, using the Seadrill drilling rig West Hercules. The exploration well was the first drilled in production licence 857, which was awarded in the 23rd licensing round in 2016.

According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), who announced the completion on Tuesday, the primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Middle and Early Jurassic Age (the Stø, Nordmela, Tubåen and Fruholmen formation). The secondary exploration target was reservoir rocks from the Early Cretaceous and Late Triassic Age (upper part of the Snadd formation).

In the primary exploration target, the well encountered about 15 meters of sandstone reservoir with good reservoir quality in the Støformasjonen, NPD said. In the Nordmela, Tubåen and Fruholmen formation, the well encountered about 25 meters of sandstone reservoir with very good reservoir quality. The well is dry.

NPD said no reservoir rocks were encountered in the secondary exploration target in the Lower Cretaceous. In the upper part of the Snadd formation, the well encountered a water-filled sandstone reservoir totaling about 30 meters with moderate to good reservoir quality.

Extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.

Well 7132/2-1 was drilled to a vertical depth of 852 meters below the sea surface and was terminated in the upper part of the Snadd formation in the Late Triassic. Water depth at the site is 293 meters. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The West Hercules drilling facility will now drill the Gjøkåsen Deep exploration well 7132/2-2 to test the deeper exploration targets in the same structure.

Equinor is operator if license 857 with 40% interest. Other partners include Aker BP, Lundin Norway and Petoro, each with 20% interest.

(Image: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate)

Categories: Offshore Energy Drilling Activity Europe Completions Shallow Water

Related Stories

EnQuest Bags Two Production Sharing Contracts off Indonesia

India Stretches Bids Deadline for 13 Offshore Deep-Sea Mineral Blocks

Borr Drilling Bags Three New Assignments for its Jack-Up Drilling Rigs

CNOOC Makes Major Oil and Gas Discovery in South China Sea

Keel Laying for Wind Flyer Trimaran Crew Boat

Jadestone Submits Field Development Plan for Assets Off Vietnam

Marine Masters Secures Wellhead Platforms Installation Job Off India

SLB Names Raman CSO, CMO

US Operator Finds Oil Offshore Vietnam

Saipem’s Castorone Vessel on Its Way to Türkiye’s Largest Gas Field

Current News

Shell-Reliance-ONGC JV Complete India’s First Offshore Decom Project

The Future of Long-Idle Drillships: Cold-Stacked or Dead-Stacked?

TMC Books Compressors Orders for FPSO and LNG Vessels

MODEC, Sumitomo Partner Up for Delivery of Gato do Mato FPSO

Chuditch Gas Field Up for Summer Drilling Ops as Sunda Reshapes Ownership Structure

EnQuest Bags Two Production Sharing Contracts off Indonesia

Hanwha Drilling’s Tidal Action Drillship En Route to Petrobras’ Roncador Field

China's ENN, Zhenhua Oil Ink LNG Supply Deals with ADNOC

MODEC Wins ExxonMobil Guyana’s Hammerhead FPSO Contract

India Stretches Bids Deadline for 13 Offshore Deep-Sea Mineral Blocks

Subscribe for AOG Digital E‑News

AOG Digital E-News is the subsea industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email three times per week

https://accounts.newwavemedia.com