Shell has completed drilling at its Portrush exploration well offshore Norway, Faroe Petroleum, a partner in the block has informed. No oil was found.
According to Faroe Petroleum, the objective section in the Upper Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Rogn and Melke formations) was encountered with a thickness of about 330 metres, and whilst 134 metres was reservoir sand, of variable quality, no hydrocarbons were encountered.
The well 6407/10-5, located in the Norwegian Sea, was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,850 metres below sea level, and was terminated in the objective interval. The water depth at the site is 336 metres. Once the data acquisition programme has been completed, the well will be permanently plugged and abandoned.
This well was the first exploration well to be drilled in production licence PL793, awarded in January 2015 (APA 2014) and is located in the Grimsan Basin, Haltenbanken, approximately 20 kilometres south-west of the Draugen field and less than 10 kilometres south-east of the Njord field.
The well was drilled ahead of schedule using the drilling facility Transocean Barents and operated by AS Norske Shell.
Graham Stewart , Chief Executive of Faroe Petroleum commented: “Whilst the results of this well are disappointing, we were fortunate in that we have been able to take advantage of reduced rig rates and associated drilling costs, which coupled with the Norwegian tax rebate system, realised a significantly lower well cost, net to Faroe. Meanwhile drilling operations are continuing on the Pil/Bue follow-up programme targeting upside in the Boomerang and Blink wells; Pil and Bue were significant discoveries announced in 2014, located in the same licence.”