Faroe Wells Upgrade Norwegian Brasse Reserves
Faroe Petroleum has now drilled appraisal wells 31/7-2S and 31/7-2A in the Brasse discovery offshore Norway, about 13 km east of the Oseberg field in the North Sea, and found "considerably more" oil and gas than originally thought, the operator said July 26.
CEO Graham Stewart said the programme has "established excellent reservoir quality and reservoir communication, together with excellent flow rates, even at the periphery of the field. This new data has resulted in an increased resource range to 56-92mn barrels of oil equivalent and a substantial increase to flow rate expectations."
Before drilling the two wells, the London-listed operator and 50% owner estimated the size of the discovery at between 6.8mn m³ and 12.7mn m³ of recoverable oil equivalents (oe). Preliminary estimates indicate that the discovery's size now at between 8.9mn³ and 14.6mn m³ oe. The licensees in PL 740 will consider tying the discovery into the Oseberg (Statoil-operated) or Brage field (14.3% interest, operated by Wintershall).
Faroe said the field economics were robust at low commodity prices and with fast track potential.
The objective of the wells was to delineate the southern part of Brasse.
The first welll, 31/7-2 S, encountered a 9-meter oil column, and the second, 31/7-2 A, encountered an 18-m oil column and a 4-m gas column in the Sognefjord formation. Reservoir quality was good or very good. The oil/water contact was encountered at 2,172 m in both wells, while in 31/7-2 A the gas/oil contact was encountered at 2,154 m, which is somewhat deeper than in the discovery well.
A successful formation test has been performed for well 31/7-2 S. The maximum production rate was 981 m³ of oil per flow day through a 64/64-inch nozzle opening. The gas/oil ratio is about 158 m³/m³. The formation test revealed mainly good production and flow properties. Extensive data acquisition and sampling were also carried out in both wells. A cubic metre of oil is equivalent to 6.3 barrels.
These are the third and fourth exploration wells in production licence 740, which was awarded in APA 2013.
Well 31/7-2 S was drilled to 2,424 m below the sea surface, and was terminated in the Tarbert formation in the Middle Jurassic. Well 31/7-2 A was drilled to a measured depth of 2723 m and a vertical depth of 2275 m below the sea surface. The well was terminated in the Sognefjord formation in the Upper Jurassic. Water depth is 120 m. The wells will be plugged and abandoned.
The wells were drilled by the Deep Sea Bergen rig, which will now proceed to drill wildcat well 6507/8-9 in production licence 124 in the Norwegian Sea, where Statoil is the operator.
William Powell