By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 12 -- An oil discovery by Statoil ASA and partners in the M5 structure in the Tampen area of the Norwegian North Sea will be produced through installations on the group's Vigdis field just to the north.
Exploration well 34/7-D-4 H was drilled to a TMD of 4,572 m by Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc.'s Ocean Vanguard semisubmersible. To optimize production, a sidetrack was drilled from the discovery well as 34/7-D-4 AH to a TMD of 4,400 m.
The well is to be completed for production in October by the Borgland Dolphin semisubmersible rig operated by Dolphin AS, a unit of Fred Olsen Energy ASA.
"It's too early to say anything about the size of this discovery," said Elin Loktu Rosnes, Statoil's subsurface department manager for the Tordis and Vigdis oil and natural gas fields. "But even minor volumes will be economic to produce since we already have established infrastructure in this area."
Vigdis has been developed with subsea templates tied back to Statoil's Snorre A tension leg platform, with well-stream transfer in two pipelines.
The M5 structure lies in Production License 089 in 251 m of water. Operator Statoil has 28.22% of PL 089. Its partners are Petoro AS 30%, Norsk Hydro ASA 13.28%, ExxonMobil Corp. 10.5%, Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS 9.6%, Total SA, 5.6%, and RWE Dea AG 2.8%.
