Equinor makes North Sea oil, gas discovery near Fram field
Equinor Energy AS and its partners will drill an appraisal well in the northern North Sea to determine whether an oil and gas discovery at Echino South, three kilometres south-west of Fram field, will be tied back to existing Troll-Fram infrastructure.
Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery at 6-16 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent (38-100 million boe).
“After more than 50 years of geological surveys on the NCS, we are still learning something new and finding hydrocarbons where we previously thought there were none. By utilising existing infrastructure, these resources may be recovered at good profitability and with low carbon dioxide intensity,” said Nick Ashton, Equinor’s senior vice-president for exploration in Norway and the UK.
Well 35/11-23, the 16th on PL 090, was drilled by the Deepsea Atlantic to a vertical depth of 2,946 metres subsea and terminated in the Dunlin Group in the Lower Jurassic.
Water depth at the site is 350 metres. It will be plugged after completing appraisal well 35/11-23A.
The well was not formation-tested, but extensive volumes of data have been collected and samples have been taken.
The primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in the upper Jurassic reservoir of the Oxfordian age (Sognefjord formation).
The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in the Middle Jurassic Brent Group and to investigate the presence of reservoirs and reservoir quality in the Middle Jurassic Etive and Oseberg formations.
In the primary exploration target, the well encountered two hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone intervals in the Sognefjord formation. The uppermost interval has a combined oil and gas column of 25 metres in sandstone with variable reservoir quality from good to extremely good.
Side-track well 35/11-23 A is being drilled to delineate the discovery in the Sognefjord formation.
Gas-oil contact was encountered, while the oil-water contact was not encountered. The other interval has a 15-metre oil column in sandstone with good to very good reservoir quality. Oil-water contact was encountered.
In the secondary exploration target, the well encountered a 35-metre oil and gas column in the Ness and Etive formations, 30 metres of which were sandstone with moderate to very good reservoir quality. Gas-oil and oil-water contacts were encountered.
There are also indications of hydrocarbons in a five-metre thick sandstone layer in the Viking Group in the Upper Jurassic directly over the Brent Group, which will be studied.
The Deepsea Atlantic drilling facility, after drilling 35/11-23 A, will drill production wells in Askeladd Nord field in PL 064 in the Barents Sea, where Equinor is operator.
Operator Equinor holds 45%. Partners are ExxonMobil Exploration & Production Norway AS 25%, Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS 15%, and Neptune Energy Norge AS 15%.
Source: Oil & Gas Journal