Wellesley Petroleum drills dry hole in North Sea PL 829

Wellesley Petroleum AS drilled a dry hole in North Sea production license 829, about 75 km north of Gjøa field and 60 km northwest of Florø in 211 m of water.

The objective of wildcat well 6204/11-3 was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks in the Lower Cretaceous (Åsgard formation). The well was drilled by the Borgland Dolphin drilling facility to a vertical depth of 1,290 m subsea and was terminated in basement rock.

No reservoir rocks were encountered. About 30 m of aquiferous sandstone was encountered in underlying Jurassic rocks with moderate to very good reservoir quality, but the well is dry. Although the well was not formation-tested, data acquisition was undertaken. The well has been plugged and the Borgland Dolphin is headed to Kvina Shipyard in Fedafjorden.

This is the first exploration well in the license. Wellesley Petroleum is operator (60%) with partners Equinor (20%) and Petoro AS (20%).