Equinor Energy AS and partners will consider whether to pursue a gas and condensate discovery near Kvitebjørn field in the North Sea in an overall assessment of the area. Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery at 3-10 million standard cu m of recoverable oil equivalents (19-63 million boe).
Exploration well 30/2-5 S Atlantis, the first in production license 878, was drilled 17 km south of Kvitebjørn field and 10 km north of Huldra to a vertical depth of 4,359 m subsea and a measured depth of 4,390 m by the West Hercules drilling facility. It was terminated in the Drake formation from the Early Jurassic Age. Water depth at the site is 142 m.
The primary exploration target was to prove hydrocarbons in the Middle Jurassic reservoir of the Brent Group. The well encountered a gas column of about 160 m in the Brent Group (the Tarbert, Ness, Etive, and Rannoch formations), of which 60 m comprise effective sandstone reservoir: the Ness formation has 30 m of sandstone with poor to moderate reservoir quality, while the Etive formation has 15 m of sandstone, primarily of moderate quality. The Tarbert formation has 10 m of sandstone with poor to moderate reservoir quality, while the Rannoch formation has 5 m of poor quality sandstone.
The well was not formation tested, but extensive amounts of data have been acquired and samples have been taken. The well will be permanently plugged.
West Hercules will move on to drill exploration well Swisher prospect well 35/11-24 S in production license 248 C in the northeastern part of the North Sea, where Equinor is operator.
Equinor is operator of the license with 60%. Partners are Source Energy 20%, and Wellesley Petroleum AS 20%.
