Norway's Statoil has made a small discovery on its Tarvos exploration well in production license 120 in the northern part of the Norwegian North Sea.
Well 34/8-16 S was drilled on the east flank of the Visund field, about 140 km northwest of Bergen, using the Songa Tyrm semisubmersible drilling rig, which will now go off hire.
The primary exploration target for 34/8-16 S was to prove gas and/or gas condensate in the Middle Triassic (the Lomvi formation). The secondary exploration target was to investigate additional resources in Lower to Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Statfjord and Brent Group) and Upper Triassic reservoir rocks (the Lunde formation).
The well encountered an oil/gas/condensate column of about 85m in the Lunde formation, 40m of which were of moderate to good reservoir quality, according to the Norwegian petroleum Directorate (NPD). The Brent group is not present. Preliminary calculations of the size of the discovery are between 0.4-1.1 MM cu m of recoverable oil equivalents. The licensees will consider further development of the discovery in the context of other potential additional resources, says the NPD
The well was not formation tested, but comprehensive data collection and sampling were carried out.
The Tarvos well was the 26th exploration well drilled in production license 120. It was drilled to a vertical and measured depth of 3875m 3830m below sea level, respectively, and was terminated in the Hegre group in the Triassic. The water depth at the site is 380m. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
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