Norway’s oil titan Statoil has completed drilling of the Skinfaks South well in the North Sea and the estimated volume is between 1.9 and 6.9 million barrels of oil equivalents. This is the fourth infrastructure-near discovery in the Gullfaks area in a 10 month period. Light oil has been confirmed in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (Brent group) and a 80 metre high column in good-quality reservoir rocks.
“We are currently evaluating, together with Development and production Norway , how this discovery can be connected to the existing infra-structure,” says Tore Løseth, exploration vice president for North Sea.
Skinfaks South is located directly west of the Gullfaks field in the North Sea Tampen area, where Statoil is focusing on infrastructure-led exploration (ILX).
“Our exploration strategy for the Norwegian continental shelf focuses both on high-impact discoveries and what we call time-critical ILX, which is exploration close to installations that within a couple of years will have the capacity to receive the oil and gas we find,” Tore Løseth says.
The well was drilled by the COSL Pioneer drilling facility, which will now proceed to the Oseberg area to drill wildcat well 30/6-28 S for production licence 53, where Statoil Petroleum AS is the operator.
[mappress] Offshore Energy Today Staff, January 4, 2012; Image: Statoil