Equinor moves rig after drilling dry hole near Visund

Equinor Energy AS drilled a dry hole in production license (PL) 554 in the North Sea, according to a Mar. 24 release by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. The company will move the Transocean Spitsbergen rig to drill a development well on Vigdis field in PL 089, also in the North Sea.

Well 34/6-6 S, the seventh exploration well in the license, was drilled by the Transocean Spitsbergen semisubmersible drilling rig 10 km north of Visund field and about 190 km northwest of Bergen in 364 m of water (OGJ Online, Oct. 13, 2022). The objective was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks in the Brent Group from the Middle Jurassic.

The well was drilled to measured and vertical depths of 3,965 m and 3,713 m subsea. It was terminated in the Burton formation from the Early Jurassic. It encountered 140 m total of the Tarbert, Etive, and Rannoch formations, of which about 90 m were sandstone layers with poor to good reservoir quality. In addition, 14 m of sandstone layers with poor to moderate reservoir quality were proven in the Cook formation with a total thickness of about 75 m. The well is dry.

Data acquisition has been carried out, and the well has been permanently plugged.

Equinor is operator of PL 554 with 40% interest. Partners are Aker BP ASA (30%) and Vår Energi ASA (30%).