Swedish oil company Lundin Energy has made a minor oil discovery in the North Sea, offshore Norway.
The Norwegian Petroleum Director said Friday that Lundin's Norwegian subsidiary Lundin Energy Norge had completed the drilling of the wildcat well 16/4-13 S.
The well was drilled about 15 kilometers south of the Edvard Grieg field in the central part of the North Sea and 190 kilometers west of Stavanger, using the West Bollsta semi-submersible drilling rig.
"The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Triassic to Paleozoic Age. The well encountered an oil column of 10 meters in conglomerate sandstone in these rocks, about 7 meters of which with moderate to poor reservoir quality," the NPD said.
The oil/water contact was encountered 1950 meters below the sea surface. The entire reservoir, including the water zone, consists of conglomeratic sandstones and in a thickness of about 380 meters.
"Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 0.5 and 1.4 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent. The licensees will assess the discovery with regard to a possible tie-in to the Solveig field," the NPD said.
This is the sixth exploration well to be drilled in production licence 359. The licence was awarded in APA 2005.
The well was drilled to respective measured and vertical depths of 2,422 and 2,325 meters below sea level and was terminated in Paleozoic rocks. The water depth at the site is 100 meters. The well will be permanently plugged and abandoned.
The West Bollsta will now move to drill the production well 16/4-BA-1H on the Solveig field in production licence 359 in the North Sea, where Lundin Energy Norway AS is the operator.