Austrian oil and gas company OMV has started drilling operations on the Oswig exploration well located in the North Sea offshore Norway.
The well is operated by OMV Norge, a Norwegian subsidiary of OMV. The beginning of drilling operations was announced on Monday by one of OMV’s partners in the well, the UK-based Longboat Energy, which has a 20 per cent interest in the licence PL1100 where the well is located. Longboat entered the licence following a farm-in agreement with OMV in May 2022 and its completion at the beginning of July.
The partner confirmed that the drilling of the Oswig well is being undertaken by the Maersk Intrepid jack-up drilling rig and is expected to take up to seven weeks to drill. The drilling contract was announced back in December 2021 and it also includes a one-well option to drill the Eirik exploration well.
The Oswig well, 30/5-4 S, consists of a high-pressure, high-temperature Jurassic rotated fault block nearby the Equinor-operated producing Tune and Oseberg fields in the Norwegian North Sea. The well is targeting the Tarbert and Ness formations, two separate intervals which are estimated to contain combined gross unrisked mean resources of 93 mmboe, 19 mmboe net to Longboat. The Oswig geological chance of success is estimated to be 36 per cent and the key risks are reservoir quality and fault seal.
According to Longboat, Oswig is one of the larger gas prospects being tested in Norway this year and several additional fault blocks have been identified within the licence area. These prospects are estimated to contain further gross unrisked mean resources of 80 mmboe, which would be significantly derisked by an Oswig discovery.
Helge Hammer , Chief Executive of Longboat, commented: “We are pleased to commence drilling of the first of three fully-funded, gas-focused exploration wells, with Copernicus – the second well in the series – also anticipated to spud this quarter.”
PGNiG Upstream Norway, a Norwegian subsidiary of Poland’s oil and gas company PGNiG, is the operator of the Copernicus well and it has recently secured consent to drill the well using the Deepsea Yantai rig .