The preliminary estimate of the size of the oil find is estimated in the range of 0.95 and 5.55 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent
OMV (Norge) made the oil discovery in PL 817, nearly 5km west of the Gudrun field. (Credit: Anita starzycka from Pixabay)
Austrian energy company OMV’s subsidiary OMV (Norge) has made an oil discovery in production license 817 (PL 817), nearly 5km west of the Gudrun field in the Norwegian North Sea through the drilling of wildcat well 15/2-2 S.
OMV (Norge) has a stake of 24% in the producing Gudrun field, which is operated by Equinor Energy.
The wildcat well in PL 817 was drilled approximately 230km west of Stavanger by the Deepsea Yantai drilling facility owned by Odfjell Drilling, as per the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).
Drilled to a vertical depth of 4,723m below sea level, well 15/2-2 S intersected an oil column with a thickness of 500m in the intra-Draupne Formation. The oil column consisted of various thin sandstone layers totaling 23m with poor reservoir characteristics.
Oil samples were collected from two different sand layers whose pressure regimes were not the same. Oil shows were also registered across the entire interval in the Upper Jurassic.
With the sandstone layers having limited thickness as well as the uncertainty in their dispersion, the preliminary estimate of the size of the oil find is estimated in the range of 0.95 and 5.55 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent.
OMV (Norge) and other licensees of PL 817 will assess the well result for determining the volume potential in various reservoir zones, and will evaluate the discovery along with other prospects in the production licence.
With a stake of 50%, OMV (Norge) is the operator of PL 817 and is partnered by Neptune Energy Norge and Source Energy, which have stakes of 30% and 20%, respectively.
Well 15/2-2 S was not formation-tested, however, data acquisition and sampling were carried out. It is the first exploration well in PL 817, which was awarded in APA 2015.
The well was terminated in the Draupne Formation in the Upper Jurassic. Its objective was to show the presence of petroleum in reservoir rocks in the intra-Draupne Formation from the Upper Jurassic.
According to NPD, the wildcat well, which was drilled at water depth of 111m, will be now plugged permanently and abandoned.