Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has drilled a dry well in the North Sea, offshore Norway, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate informed Wednesday.
The exploration well 2/9-6 Sl was drilled on the west side of the Mandal High, about 9 kilometers north of the Norwegian-Danish border and 280 kilometers southwest of Stavanger.
The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Upper Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Mandal Formation).
The well encountered a sandstone layer with clay stone elements, about 250 meters thick, in the Mandal Formation. Approximately 140 meters of this was reservoir rocks with poor to moderate reservoir properties.
"Traces of petroleum were registered in the upper part of the reservoir. The well is classified as dry," NPD said.
This is the first exploration well in production license 617. The license was awarded in APA 2011.
The well 2/9-6 S was drilled to respective vertical and measured depths of 4,250 and 4,274 meters below sea level, and the well was terminated in the Farsund Formation in the Upper Jurassic.
The water depth at the site is 70 meters. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
The well 2/9-6 S was drilled by the Maersk Integrator jack-up rig, which will now drill production wells on the Tambar field in production licence 065 in the southern North Sea, where Aker BP ASA is the operator.