ConocoPhillips has made an oil and gas discovery in exploration well 25/7-7 near the Balder field in the Norwegian North Sea.
The first wildcat in production licence 782 S, the well was drilled by the Leiv Eiriksson drilling facility about 15 kilometers northwest of Balder in the central part of the North Sea and 205 kilometers west of Stavanger, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on Tuesday.
The primary and secondary exploration targets for the well were to prove petroleum in Upper Jurassic reservoir rocks (Intra-Draupne and Heather Formation sandstones, respectively).
In the primary exploration target, the well encountered two separate gas/condensate and oil-bearing intervals, with sandy layers in the Draupne Formation totaling about 25 meters with reservoir properties varying from poor to very good. No hydrocarbon/water contact was encountered. Thin water-bearing siltstone layers were encountered in the secondary exploration target in the Heather Formation.
Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 1 and 10 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent. The licensees will further assess the well result with regard to delineation/profitability, as well as investigation of nearby prospects.
The licence was awarded in APA 2014.
Water depth at the site is 127 meters. The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 4,705 meters below sea level, and it was terminated in the Heather Formation in the Middle Jurassic. The well was not formation-tested, but data has been collected and samples have been taken.
The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
The Leiv Eiriksson drilling facility will now drill a wildcat well in production licence 917, where ConocoPhillips is operator.