Conoco Makes Small Find in Norwegian North Sea
ConocoPhillips has made a “minor” oil and gas find near the Balder field in the Norwegian North Sea, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on January 14.
A wildcat well drilled at the Conoco-operated production licence 917, 10 km northwest of Balder, encountered several oil and gas-bearing intervals with independent columns in Lower Jurassic and Upper Triassic layers, according to an NPD statement. Three thin gas-bearing sandstone layers were also found in Middle Jurassic rock.
NPD places the size of the discovery at between 1mn and 5mn m3 of recoverable oil equivalent.
This is the first exploration well to be drilled at licence 917, which was awarded in the APA 2017 licensing round. It was completed by the Leiv Eiriksson semi-submersible rig, to a vertical depth of 3,188 metres, in waters 126 metres deep.
Conoco and its partners Lundin Petroleum, Suncor Energy and Var Energi will assess the well results to decide on future exploration plans at the site, the NPD said. Leiv Eiriksson will continue working on a second wildcat at the licence in the meantime, according to the directorate.