Wellesley confirms gas-condensate discovery in Norwegian Sea

Wellesley Petroleum AS confirmed the Carmen gas-condensate discovery in production license (PL) 1148 about 25 km northwest of Troll field and 35 km east of Kvitebjørn field.

The discovery was confirmed by the 35/10-16 S appraisal well—the license's third—drilled in 365 m of water by the Deepsea Yantai rig to a vertical depth of 4,153 m below sea level in the Amundsen formation.

The objective of the well was to delineate the Carmen discovery in wells 35/10-10 S and 35/10-10 A, drilled in 2023. These wellbores encountered hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir rocks in the Ness, Etive, and Oseberg formations (the Brent Group) from the Middle Jurassic, in addition to hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir rocks in the Cook formation from the Early Jurassic.

A 14.6-m gas-condensate column was encountered in the lower part of the Ness formation, with reservoir rocks of poor to very good quality. The gas-water contact was not encountered.

In the Etive formation, a 41.3-m gas-condensate column was encountered in reservoir rocks of poor to moderate reservoir quality. The gas-water contact was not encountered.

In the Oseberg formation, a 5-m gas-condensate column was encountered in reservoir rocks of poor to moderate reservoir quality. The gas-water contact was encountered at 3,966 m below sea level.

In the Cook formation, reservoir rocks with poor to moderate reservoir properties and a thickness of 31.6 m were encountered. The reservoir was aquiferous with hydrocarbon shows.

Preliminary calculations show that the discovery contains 3.4-17 million cu m of recoverable oil equivalent, corresponding to 21-107 million boe.

The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

Deepsea Yantai will now drill appraisal well 35/7-2 on the Afrodite discovery in PL 293.

Wellesley Petroleum operates PL 1148 (30%) with partners DNO Norge AS (30%), Equinor Energy AS (30%), and Aker BP ASA (10%).