The wells, which were drilled using the West Hercules drilling rig, were concluded in the Heather formation from the Late Jurassic period
The three wells are located close to North Sea Fram field. (Credit: C Morrison from Pixabay)
Equinor and its licence partners Petoro and Wellesley Petroleum have made oil and gas discovery close to the Fram field in the production licence 248 C in the North Sea.
The oil and gas has been discovered following the drilling of wildcat well 35/11-24 S and appraisal wells 35/11-24 A and 35/11-24 B.
The wells, which were drilled about 7km west of the Fram field and 130km northwest of Bergen, were aimed at proving petroleum in Upper Jurassic reservoir rocks (Intra Heather Formation sandstones).
Drilled using the West Hercules drilling rig, the wells were concluded in the Heather formation from the Late Jurassic period at a depth of 3000-3600m.
Equinor Norway exploration senior vice-president Nick Ashton said: “We are working continuously on keeping an exploration portfolio that forms the basis for high value creation and in addition can be produced with a low carbon footprint. This discovery contributes to reaching this goal.”
As per the estimates, the recoverable resources are in the range of 2-6 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalent that corresponds to 13-38 million barrels of oil equivalent.
“This strongly indicates that it is still possible to prove new and profitable resources that can utilise existing infrastructure on the NCS.”
The well 35/11-24 S encountered a hydrocarbon column totalling 42m in sandstone layers in the Heather formation, while the well 35/11-24 A encountered 25m gas column and up to 6m in moderate quality sandstone in the Heather formation.
Additionally, the well 35/11-24 B encountered minimum 3m of oil column in good-quality sandstone in the Heather formation.
The wells are permanently plugged and abandoned
Although the wells were not formation-tested, extensive data acquisition and sampling were conducted. The wells have now been permanently plugged and abandoned.
The licensees are planning to assess the discovery for a potential tie-in to existing infrastructure in the area.
Last year, Equinor and its partners secured consent from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) to commence production from the Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea.