Equinor spuds Kveikje exploration well

Equinor Energy AS has started drilling operations on Kveikje exploration well 35/10-8S in Block 35/10 in the Norwegian North Sea.

The well is being drilled by the Deepsea Stavanger semisubmersible drilling rig in production license (PL) 293B, north of Troll field, about 8 km from the Swisher discovery, and about 10 km from the Toppand discovery (OGJ Online, Feb. 7, 2022).

The prospect is an Eocene Balder formation injectite with seismic amplitude support. Injectite reservoirs are typically characterized by excellent reservoir properties, with recent exploration successes of this type including the King and Frosk discoveries in the Balder and Alvheim area, respectively. The exploration well has further potential upside in the underlying Paleocene Rokke and Late Cretaceous n’Roll secondary prospects.

Drilling is expected to take up to 4 weeks. If successful, Kveikje could potentially form part of an area cluster development.

Kveikje is estimated to contain gross mean prospective resources of 36 MMboe with further potential upside estimated at 79 MMboe on a gross basis. The chance of success is 55% with key risks being trap presence and seal integrity.

Rokke and n’Roll have an additional 127 MMboe gross mean prospective resource with chances of success around 14-34% based on operator estimates.

Equinor is operator at PL 293B (51%) with partners DNO Norge AS (29%), INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS (10%), and Longboat Energy Norge AS (10%).