Norwegian oil and gas operator DNO ASA made a gas condensate discovery on the Norma prospect in the Norwegian North Sea license PL984 that it considers a play-opener for the deep turbiditic sands in the area.
Within the license, the operator has identified additional exploration prospects that have been considerably de-risked by the Norma results, the company said in a release Sept. 19.
Plans are under way to further delineate the discovery and the upside potential in the license, but prior to further appraisal drilling, improved seismic imaging and remapping will be undertaken to identify an optimal location for the next well, the company said.
Preliminary evaluation of the discovery indicates gross recoverable resources of 25-130 MMboe on a P90-P10 basis, with a mean of 70 MMboe, in a Jurassic reservoir zone with high quality sandstones, the company said.
The discovery lies 20 km northwest of the Balder hub and 30 km south of the Alvheim hub near existing infrastructure in the central part of the North Sea, offering tie-back potential.
Drilled to a vertical depth of 4,800 m with the Deepsea Yantai drilling rig, Norma is DNO’s first operated high-pressure high-temperature exploration well. At 4,650 m the discovery well encountered a 16-m hydrocarbon column in a 20-m gross reservoir section in Jurassic sandstones.
Several gas condensate samples were collected in the reservoir and a water sample was acquired. A bypass core of 33.7 m was secured, and an extensive data and sampling program conducted, DNO said.
DNO is operator of the license with 30% interest. Partners are Source Energy AS, Equinor Energy AS, Vår Energi ASA (20% each), and Aker BP ASA (10%).
The Deepsea Yantai semisubmersible drilling rig will move to drill an appraisal of the Neptune Energy-operated 2022 Ofelia discovery (DNO 10%) (OGJ Online, Aug. 26, 2022).