The discovery has been sized in the range of 0.5-1.4 million Sm3 of recoverable oil equivalent, as per preliminary estimates
The oil discovery has been made by Aker BP near the Ivar Aasen field. (Credit: Wonita or Troy Janzen from Pixabay)
Aker BP has made an oil discovery in production licence 867 B (PL 867 B), near the Ivar Aasen field in the Norwegian North Sea following the drilling of wildcat well 25/10-17 S.
Drilled to a vertical depth of 4,057m below sea level, the 25/10-17 S well made contact with a 3m oil column in the Hugin Formation totalling 98m. Of this, 80m was sandstone of moderate reservoir quality.
The wildcat well encountered oil/water contact at 3,654m below sea level.
Besides, the exploratory well intersected residual oil both over and under the oil column in the Hugin and Sleipner formations.
According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), the Skagerrak Formation was water-bearing.
The discovery has been sized in the range of 0.5-1.4 million Sm3 of recoverable oil equivalent, as per preliminary estimates. However, preliminary assessments indicate that the oil discovery at the present time is not profitable.
The 25/10-17 S well is located 12km north of the Aker BP-operated Ivar Aasen field, which has been producing since 2016. It was not formation-tested, but data acquisition and sampling were undertaken.
Aker BP is the operator of PL 867 B with an 80% stake. The company is partnered by Lime Petroleum, which holds the remaining 20% stake in the North Sea block.
The 25/10-17 S, which is the first exploration well in the block, is located in a water depth of 116m. It will now be plugged permanently and abandoned.
The exploratory well was drilled by the Scarabeo 8 drilling facility, which will now move on to drill another wildcat well 16/1-25 S in the AkerBP-operated production licence 1141 in the North Sea.
Separately, the NPD announced another hydrocarbon discovery in the North Sea, which was made by Equinor in PL 923 near the Troll field.