Equinor Energy AS discovered additional oil and gas in two reservoirs in the Fram area 9 km north of Troll field in the North Sea. The operator and its license partners will consider tying the discovery, preliminarily named F-South, back to existing or future infrastructure, Equinor said in a release Aug. 25.
One of the discoveries consists of both oil and gas, while the other one is just gas, Equinor said. In total, the resources are estimated at 0.1-1.1 million std cu m (0.6-6.9 MMboe).
The discoveries are "in an interesting area with a well-developed infrastructure," said Geir Sørtveit, Equinor's senior vice-president for Exploration & Production West on the Norwegian continental shelf. He said the companies intend to further explore the area. "We believe that we may encounter more, both oil and gas," he said.
Discovery details
In a separate release Aug. 25, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate provided additional details about the discovery.
Well 35/11-31 S, the 24th exploration well in production license (PL) 090, was drilled in 354 m of water by the COSL Innovator drilling rig 9 km north of Troll field and 97 km southwest of Florø to 2,636 m TVD subsea. It was terminated in the Oseberg formation from the Middle Jurassic.
The well's primary target was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Late Jurassic (Sognefjord formation). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Middle Jurassic (Brent Group) and the Late Palaeocene.
The well encountered a 5-m oil column in the Sognefjord formation, about 36 m of which consists of sandstone with good reservoir properties.
A 4-m gas column was encountered in the secondary exploration target in a 68-m thick sandstone layer with moderate-to-good reservoir properties. In the Lista formation, the well encountered aquiferous sandstone with very good reservoir properties.
The well was not formation-tested, but extensive volumes of data and samples were collected. The well has been permanently plugged.
The COSL Innovator will move on to drill wildcat well 34/8-20 S in PL 554 E.
Equinor Energy is operator at PL090 (45%) with partners Vår Energi ASA (40%) and INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS (15%).
