Total Norge is in the process of completing the drilling of wildcat well 1/5-5, located northwest of the Ekofisk field in the North Sea. The well is dry.
The well was drilled about 40 kilometers northwest of the Ekofisk field, in the production license 618 where Total is the operator, and 320 kilometers southwest of Stavanger.
According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), the primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Upper Jurassic reservoir rocks (Ula formation). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in Upper Triassic reservoir rocks (Skagerrak formation).
NPD said that the well encountered about 80-metre thick sandstone in the Ula formation with moderate to poor reservoir quality. The reservoir only contains traces of gas. The well was classified as dry and data acquisition was carried out, the agency added.
This is the first exploration well in production license 618. The license was awarded in APA 2011.
The well 1/5-5 was drilled to a vertical depth of 5942 meters below the sea surface and was terminated in the Bryne formation in the Middle Jurassic.
Water depth at the site is 70 meters. The well will now be plugged and abandoned.
The well 1/5-5 was drilled with the Maersk Gallant jack-up drilling rig. The rig, owned by the offshore drilling contractor Maersk Drilling, is about to complete its current contract with Total E&P Norge.
However, the jack-up will not be without work for long as it got a new contract with the oil company Maersk Oil, set to start in February 2017. The contract covers the plugging and abandonment of the Leadon and James subsea fields in the UK sector of the North Sea.