By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 4 -- Statoil AS has begun drilling to assess development of the 1975 Gudrun oil, gas, and condensate discovery in the Sleipner area of the Norwegian North Sea.
The 15/3-8 well is expected to take 4 months to reach the high-temperature, high-pressure reservoir at 4,800 m. It's 13 km east of the UK-Norway continental shelf boundary and 50 km north of the Sleipner producing area.
Statoil said a development option might be a tie-back to Sleipner production infrastructure.
In the summer of 2001, the 15/3-7 exploration and appraisal well, drilled in the eastern section of the Gudrun structure, encountered hydrocarbons in Middle and Upper Jurassic sands. The well was not production-tested, but extensive information was collected from core samples (OGJ Online, Aug. 28, 2001).
Wildcats drilled in 1975 and 1979 at Gudrun found oil, gas, and condensate. Statoil said reserves were not sufficiently assessed.
Statoil has a 46.8% share in production license 025 (Gudrun), Marathon Oil Corp. has 28.2%, and BP PLC and Gaz de France have 12.5% each.
