Statoil plans two-well program off Denmark

Feb. 16, 2001
Norway's Statoil AS has contracted the drilling rig Noble George Sauvageau from Dutch oil company NAM BV to drill two wells on the Stine prospect 7 km to the east of the operator's Siri field in the Danish North Sea. The rig is working off Holland for Wintershall AG and will move to drill one well for NAM before kicking off the 90-day assignment for Statoil, scheduled to start in midMay.


By the OGJ Online Staff


LONDON, Feb. 16
�Norway's Statoil AS has contracted the drilling rig Noble George Sauvageau from Dutch oil company NAM BV to drill two wells on the Stine prospect 7 km to the east of the operator's Siri field in the Danish North Sea.

The rig is working off Holland for Wintershall AG and will move to drill one well for NAM before kicking off the 90-day assignment for Statoil, scheduled to start in mid-May. If NAM agrees to extend the sublet, Statoil said it would consider using the rig to drill a third well in the area.

Should the first well spudded at Stine reveal commercial reserves, said a Statoil spokesman, a second well would be drilled from the Siri platform to produce the field. If Stine proves to be uncommercial, he added, the rig would move on to drill a sixth producer at Siri.

Statoil's development plans for the nearby Siri East development, where reserves estimates are 7 million bbl of oil, were put on hold a few months ago as unviable due to high rig rates and uneconomic platform construction costs.

The Siri field, which is in 60 m of water, came on stream in March 1999. Statoil estimates reserves at more than 40 million bbl. Siri was the first Danish offshore discovery to be made outside the Central Graben area of the North Sea.

Both the Stine prospect and Siri field are on Block 5604/20.

The Siri partners are Statoil 40%, Enterprise Oil PLC 20%, Danish oil and gas company DONG E&P (an affiliate of Dansk Olie og Naturgas AS) 20%, Denerco Oil AS 7.5%, and Phillips Petroleum Co. 12.5%.