Equinor drills dry well on PL923 in North Sea west of Troll

Equinor Energy AS has completed drilling wildcat well 31/2-24 on production license (PL) 923, about 3 km west of Troll field in the North Sea and about 115 km northwest of Bergen. Acquired data indicated the well is dry.

The primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Upper and Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks in Sognefjord formation in the Viking group and Tarbert, Ness, and Etive formations in the Brent group. The secondary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks in Fensfjord formation in the Viking group and Oseberg formation in the Brent group.

Well 31/2-24 encountered Sognefjord and Fensfjord formations in the Viking group, with a total thickness of 514 m, of which 197 m were sandstone reservoir of moderate to good quality. Tarbert, Ness, Etive, and Oseberg formations were encountered in the Brent group. Tarbert, Ness, and Etive have a thickness of about 106 m, of which 41 m were sandstone reservoir with poor to good quality. Oseberg formation is about 31 m thick, of which 25 m were sandstone reservoir of moderate to good quality.

This was the sixth exploration well in PL 923 and was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,558 m subsea and terminated in Drake formation in Lower Jurassic.

Water depth was 330 m. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

Well 31/2-24 was drilled by Odfjell Drilling Ltd.’s Deepsea Stavanger jack-up, which will now drill wildcat well 30/11-15 for Equinor in PL 035.