NPD: DNO oil find in Barents Sea ‘not commercially interesting’

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has deemed a Barents Sea oil discovery “not commercially interesting.” The well was drilled by the Transocean Ltd.’s Transocean Barents semisubmersible drilling rig for operator DNO ASA.

Wildcat well 7222/11-2 was drilled about 80 km northeast of Snohvit field 160 km northwest of Hammerfest. It was the first exploration well in production license 659.

The well reached a vertical depth of 2,918 m subsea in 338 m of water.

NPD said the well encountered a gross oil column of about 30 m in the Kobbe formation, “with much poorer reservoir quality than expected.” A formation test revealed “very poor flow properties.”