Aker BP Makes Small Gas Find in Barents Sea

Norwegian oil and gas company Aker BP has made a minor gas discovery in the Barents Sea offshore Norway, which is currently seen as not big enough to warrant development.

According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the oil firm has concluded the drilling of wildcat well 7234/6-1, located some 160 kilometers south of the Korpfjell gas discovery in the eastern part of the Barents Sea and 290 kilometres northeast of Vardø.

The objective of the well, drilled by Odfjell Drilling's Deepsea Nordkapp drilling rig, was to prove petroleum in carbonate reservoir rocks from the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian (the Ørn Formation).

"The well 7234/6-1 encountered a gas column totalling 57 metres in the Ørn Formation, of which 26 metres in carbonate rocks (dolomite) with poor to moderate reservoir quality. The gas/water contact was not encountered, but water samples have been collected. The gas discovery has a high CO2 content,"the NPD said .

"The well encountered traces of gas in several thin sandstone layers of variable reservoir quality in the Snadd, Kobbe and Havert Formation from the Triassic. The well also encountered a 36-metre thick Realgrunnen Subgroup from the Jurassic with a sandstone reservoir with no traces of petroleum. Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 1.6 and 2.1 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent," the NPD said.

The discovery is not considered to be financially profitable at present, but the licensees will assess the discovery alongside remaining prospects in the production licence, the oil regulator said. This is the first exploration well in production licence 858. This licence was awarded in the 23rd licensing round in 2016.

The well 7234/6-1 was drilled to a vertical depth of 4003 metres below sea level, and was terminated in the Ørn Formation. Water depth at the site is 247 metres. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The Deepsea Nordkapp semi-submersible drilling rig will now move to drill pilot holes in production licence 146 in the North Sea, where Aker BP ASA is the operator.