Norwegian oil and gas major Statoil has failed to find oil in its latest North Sea exploration well. The wildcat well 16/7-11, is located in the production licence 72 B in the North Sea, offshore Norway.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) granted Statoil a drilling permit for well on August 12.
The well was drilled approximately 10 kilometres east of the Sleipner A platform in the central part of the North Sea and 220 kilometres west of Stavanger, where the water depth is 81 metres.
The purpose of the well, the NPD says, was to prove petroleum in Upper Trias reservoir rocks (the Skagerrak formation). The well was drilled 97 metres into the Skagerrak formation, about 50 metres of which was in thin sandstone layers with moderate to good reservoir quality.
Data acquisition has been carried out. This is the second exploration well in production licence 72 B, where Statoil is the operator with a 50% ownership interest. The other licensee is ExxonMobil Exploration & Production Norway AS with 50%.
Well 16/7-11 was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,625 metres below sea level and was terminated in the Skagerrak formation. It will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
The well was drilled by the drilling rig Songa Trym, which will now drill wildcat well 25/11-28 in the central part of the North Sea in production licence 169, where Statoil is the operator with an ownership interest of 57%. The other licensees are Petoro AS with 30% and ExxonMobil & Production Norway AS with 13%.
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