Statoil Mulls Heidrun Tie-in for Wildcat Find
The primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Middle and/or Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Fangst and/or Bat Group). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks (the Bat Group).
The well encountered a gas column about 80 metres deep in the Bat Group, of which 35 metres were in sandstone with good reservoir quality. The gas/water contact was proven 2,185 m below the sea surface. In the secondary exploration target, the well encountered several water-filled sandstone layers with good reservoir quality in lower parts of the Are formation in the Bat Group.
Preliminary estimation of the size of the discovery is between 0.7 and 1.2bn m³ of recoverable gas. The licensees in production licence 124 will consider a tie-in of the discovery to existing infrastructure on the Heidrun field, the NPD said.
The well was not formation tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out. This is the eighth exploration well in production licence 124. The licence was awarded in the 10th licensing round in 1986. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
Well 6507/8-9 was drilled by the Deepsea Bergen drilling facility, which will now proceed to drill wildcat well 33/9-22 S in production licence 881 in the North Sea, where Wellesley Petroleum AS is the operator.
William Powell