Statoil hits pay near Gudrun off Norway
By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 19 -- Statoil is considering development of a small oil and gas discovery in the Norwegian North Sea via tieback to Gudrun field under development about 55 km north of Sleipner oil field.
The company estimates that the Brynhild discovery, on Production License 187 about 3 km east of Gudrun, holds 3-19 million boe of oil and gas.
The 15/2-9 wildcat and sidetrack penetrated 18 m of oil pay in the Upper Jurassic Draupne formation with good reservoir quality and 35 m of oil and gas pay of variable reservoir quality in Middle Jurassic Hugin.
The Transocean Leader semisubmersible drilled the well to the Middle Jurassic Sleipner formation at a vertical depth of 4,630 below sea level in 108 m of water.
“The Brynhild find is a valuable addition to the field development project on the Gudrun field, although it’s no secret that the size of the discovery didn’t quite meet the expectations we had beforehand,” said Tom Dreyer, Statoil vice-president for infrastructure-led exploration in the North Sea.
The only other well on PL 187 was drilled in late 1998 and early 1999 by Amoco Norway to test Paleocene Balder and Hermod sandstones. It was a dry hole.
Statoil operates the license with a 65% interest. Partners are GDF Suez Norge E&P AS, 25%, and Marathon Petroleum Norge AS, 10%.
The semi next will drill a shallow well to test seabed conditions at Gudrun, where Statoil plans to install a 16-slot platform and begin development drilling next year (OGJ, June 28, 2010, Newsletter).