German oil and gas company Wintershall has failed to find hydrocarbons after drilling a wildcat well in the Norwegian Sea.
The company received a drilling permit for the 6706/6-2 S well back in October 2018. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on Monday that Wintershall had concluded the drilling of the well located in Wintershall-operated production license 847.
The well was drilled about 60 kilometers north of the Aasta Hansteen field and 310 kilometers northwest of Sandnessjøen in the northern part of the Norwegian Sea.
According to the NPD, the objective of the well was to prove petroleum in two reservoir levels in the upper Cretaceous (the Nise formation).
The well encountered both of the sandstone reservoirs in the Nise formation. The upper reservoir is about 230 meters thick, with effective reservoir of 175 meters with moderate reservoir properties. The lower reservoir is about 180 meters thick with effective reservoir of 175 meters with poor reservoir properties. There were traces of gas in both reservoirs. The well is classified as dry. Extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.
This is the first exploration well in production license 847, which was awarded in APA 2015.
The well 6706/6-2 S was drilled to a measured depth of 3916 meters and a vertical depth of 3767 meters below the sea surface, and was terminated in the Upper Cretaceous. It will now be permanently plugged and abandoned. Water depth is 1214 meters.
The well 6706/6-2 S was drilled by the Transocean Spitsbergen drilling rig, which will now drill wildcat well 36/1-3 in production license 885 in the northern part of the North Sea, where Equinor is the operator.