Equinor drills dry hole near Johan Castberg field

Equinor Energy AS wildcat well 7219/9-3 failed to find hydrocarbons in Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic reservoirs in production license 532.

Wildcat well 7219/9-3 was drilled by the Transocean Enabler about 25 km south of Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea and 220 km northwest of Hammerfest in 326 m of water. It was drilled to a vertical depth of 1,306 m subsea and was terminated in the Fruholmen formation.

The primary target was the Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic Tubåen formation, with a thickness of about 110 m containing 50 m of sandstone layers with very good reservoir properties.

The secondary target was the Upper Triassic Fruholmen formation. About 290 m of the formation was drilled containing 75 m of sandstone layers with reservoir properties varying from good to very good.

The well came up dry. Although there were no formation tests, data acquisition has been carried out. The well will be permanently plugged. This is the tenth exploration well in PL 532.

Transocean Enabler will now drill production wells for development of Johan Castberg field, where Equinor is operator.

Equinor is operator of PL 532 (50%) with partners Vår Energi (30%) and Petoro AS (20%).