Statoil Concludes Drilling Campaign in Hoop Area With No Commercial Discoveries

Statoil completed its summer’s drilling campaign in the Hoop area, announcing disappointing results. On Thursday, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) wrote that Statoil, operator of production licence 614, has found gas, with preliminary calculations hinting at 1 to 2 billion standard cubic metres (Sm3).

‘This is the first exploration well in production licence 614, which was awarded in the 21st licencing round in 2011,’ reads the note by the NPD. 

According to the company, the whole summer campaign has not turned out to be as successful as expected. 

“We are naturally disappointed with the results of this summer’s drilling campaign in the Hoop area,” Irene Rummelhoff, Statoil senior vice president for exploration on the Norway continental shelf, commented in a separate statement.

Nonetheless, the Oslo-based company said there is room for improvement and that the campaign will be a milestone to understand better this frontier area. 

“However, it is important to understand that Hoop is a frontier area of more than 15,000 square kilometres with only six wells completed to date, so we do not have all the answers about the subsurface yet. Non-commercial discoveries and dry wells are part of the game in frontier exploration. They provide important knowledge about the area.”

Last week, NPD released figures that showed that Norway’s gas production decreased for the third consecutive month.