Norwegian oil and gas major Statoil, operator of Gimle Unit and production licence 193, has made a minor oil and gas discovery in wildcat well 34/10-55 S.
The well was drilled from the Gullfaks C platform to a structure east of the Gimle field, about 7 kilometres northeast of the Gullfaks field and 7 kilometres south of the Visund Sør field in the northern part of the North Sea.
The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic, Early Jurassic and Late Triassic reservoir rocks (Brent group, Statfjord group and Lunde formation). It was also important to collect geological information about stratigraphy, properties and pore pressure.
Well 34/10-55 S encountered a total oil and gas column of about 170 metres, of which 60 metres are in sandstone with good to very good reservoir properties in the Statfjord group and 10 metres in sandstone with moderate to good properties in the Lunde formation.
Preliminary calculations indicate that the discovery contains between 1 and 3 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalents. The discovery will be produced from a subsequent development well from the Gullfaks C platform.
The well was not formation-tested, but data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.
34/10-55 S was drilled to a vertical and measured depth of 3228 and 7811 metres, respectively, below the sea surface, and was terminated in the Lunde formation in the Triassic. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned. Water depth is 220 metres.
The well was drilled from the Gullfaks C platform, which will now proceed to drill production well 34/10-C-52 C.