Aker BP Finds More Gas, Oil off Norway
Operator Aker BP has found oil and gas with a wildcat well in PL 869 in the central North Sea off Norway, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said March 19. Aker BP has 60%; Swedish Lundin and Var Energi have 20% each. Eni has 69.6% of Var, and Hitec Vision, Norwegian investment fund, has the rest.
Exploration well 24/9-14S and a horizontal appraisal well 24/9-14A were drilled in the Froskelar Main prospect, about 4 km northwest of the Bøyla Field and 225 km west of Stavanger in a water depth of 120 metres and were drilled with the semisubmersible drilling rig Scarabeo 8.
Exploration well 24/9-14S was drilled to a vertical depth of 2097 metres below sea level, and reached target depth in the Paleocene Sele Formation. The main bore proved a hydrocarbon column of 68 metres with an oil zone of 38 metres. It encountered several oil and gas prone sandstone layers that are interpreted as injectites within the Hordaland Group, with very good to excellent reservoir properties, the NPD said.
The horizontal geological side-track 24/9-14A verified the oil-water contact and reached a respective vertical and measured depth of 1847 metres and 4432 metres. It encountered an interval of total 540 metres with reservoir sandstones of good quality and variable thickness.
The wells have been permanently plugged and abandoned. Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 63mn and 132mn recoverable barrels of oil equivalent. A part of the discovery could straddle over to the UK side.
The discovery could be linked to nearby existing infrastructure in the Alvheim area. PL 869 was awarded in APA 2016 – Awards in Pre-Defined Areas and surrounds PL 340 (Var 20%) which contains the Boyla Field and the 2018 discovery Frosk. Froskelar Main results doubles the resources of the Frosk discovery and is strategically important for Var Energi in the area around the Boyla Field and the Var Energi operated Balder/Ringhorne Field, Var said in its statement.
Var is the result of a merger between Point Resources and Eni late 2018. Operated assets include the Goliat field in the Barents Sea, the Marulk field in the Norwegian Sea and the Balder, Jotun and Ringhorne fields in the North Sea.