The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said April 13 that wildcat well 6706/12-3 near the Aasta Hansteen Field proved 38 m (125 ft) of gas. Statoil Petroleum AS operates license 602 and is finishing drilling the well.

The well was drilled about 12 m (39 ft) west of Aasta Hansteen in the northern Norwegian Sea. The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Upper Cretaceous reservoir rocks, with a primary exploration target in the Nise Formation and a secondary exploration target in the Kvitnos Formation.

The well hit a gas column in Nise, which had about 30 m (98 ft) of good reservoir sandstone. In the Kvitnos, the well hit about 35 m of good reservoir quality aquiferous sandstone. Preliminary estimates of the discovery’s size range between 2 Bcm (71 Bcf) and 7 Bcm (247 Bcf) of recoverable gas.

The well was not formation tested, but data acquisition and sampling were carried out.

Well 6706/12-3 was drilled to 3,296 m (10,814 ft) vertical depth and was terminated in the Kvitnos. Water depth is 1,287 m (4,222 ft). The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Well 6706/12-3 was drilled by the Transocean Spitsbergen drilling facility, which will now permanently plug Well 34/11-2 S near the Gullfaks Field in the North Sea, where Statoil Petroleum is the operator.

The licensees will evaluate Well 6706/12-3’s discovery, as regards a tie-in to the Aasta Hansteen.

This is the first exploration well in production license 602, which was awarded in the 21st licensing round in 2011.

Offshore