Statoil Petroleum AS, the operator of production licence 532, is in the process of completing the drilling of wildcat well 7220/4-1.
The well has been drilled about 11 kilometres northwest of the 7220/8-1 Johan Castberg discovery in the Barents Sea and about 247 kilometres northwest of Hammerfest.
The well’s primary exploration target was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Middle and Early Jurassic (Stø, Nordmela and Tubåen formations). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Late Triassic (Snadd formation).
The well encountered a gross gas column of about 130 metres in the Stø and Nordmela formations, with poorer reservoir quality than expected. In the Snadd formation, the well encountered an approx. 45-metre tall gross gas column.
Preliminary calculations indicate that the discovery totals between two and four billion standard cubic metres (Sm 3 ) of recoverable gas.
The well was not formation tested, but extensive data collection and sampling have been carried out.
This is the sixth exploration well in production licence 532. The licence was awarded in the 20 th licencing round in 2009.
The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 3209 metres below the sea surface, and was terminated in the Snadd formation from the Middle to Late Triassic. Water depth is 403 metres. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
Well 7220/4-1 was drilled by the West Hercules drilling facility, which will now move on to drill wildcat well 7220/7-3 S on another prospect in the same production licence.
Press Release, February 20, 2014; Image: Statoil