Statoil drills dry North Sea well

Statoil Petroleum AS, operator of production license 628, is in the process of concluding the drilling of wildcat well 25/9-4.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said the well was dry. 

The well was drilled about 25km from the Jotun field in the central part of the North Sea, and about 138km west of Haugesund.

The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Hugin and Sleipner formations).

The well encountered an about 19m-thick Hugin formation, of which about 15m had relatively good reservoir properties, and a Sleipner formation of about 31m, with relatively poor reservoir properties. 

Data acquisition and sampling have been carried out. The well is the first exploration well in production license 628, which was awarded in APA 2011.

The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2397m below sea level, and was terminated in the Sleipner formation in the Middle Jurassic. The well will be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Well 25/9-4 was drilled in 116m water depth by the Ocean Vanguard drilling facility, which will now proceed to the 16/2-6 Johan Sverdrup oil discovery in production license 265 in the central part of the North Sea to drill appraisal well 16/2-19, where Statoil is the operator.