DEA participates in another oil and gas discovery in PL609, north of the Snøhvit field. Earlier this autumn the licence partnership successfully completed an appraisal well on the Alta discovery.
The drilling campaign of exploration well 7220/6-2 R in the Barents Sea has led to a discovery of oil and gas. “We are satisfied to participate in yet another discovery in the Barents Sea, and this shows that this region continues to be attractive for DEA”, says DEA Norge’s Exploration Manager Svend Erik Pettersson.
The operator of PL609 is Lundin Norway AS, which is in the process of completing the drilling of the exploration well. The Neiden well 7220/6-2 R is part of an ongoing drilling campaign in the Barents Sea where DEA Norge is partner in a total of three wells in 2016. Before Neiden, the drilling rig Leiv Eiriksson completed a successful appraisal well on the eastern flank of the Alta discovery.
“The rig will now continue to the Fillicudi prospect southwest of Neiden for the last well in this campaign”, says Pettersson. “The Neiden re-entry well encountered oil and gas bearing intervals in good quality carbonate reservoirs of Permian age. This discovery warrants further evaluation of the greater Neiden area with a view to potentially unlock additional volumes in yet undrilled structures.”
Well 7220/6-2 R was a continuation of well 7220/6-2 which was temporarily plugged and abandoned in November 2015. The well is located approximately 60 kilometres northeast of the Alta oil and gas discovery made in well 7220/11-1 and 2 kilometres northwest of exploration well 7220/6-1, Obelix, drilled in 2005. The distance from the coast is approximately 200 kilometres.
The Neiden well had two primary objectives; to prove petroleum in sandstones of the Middle Triassic Snadd Formation and to prove petroleum in the carbonates of the Permian to Carboniferous aged Ørn Formation.
In the Ørn Formation carbonates the well encountered a total hydrocarbon column of 31 metres, comprising a 10 metre gas cap above 21 metres of oil. The preliminary estimate of the size of the discovery is between 19 and 44 million barrel of recoverable oil and between 1 and 2 billion standard cubic metres of recoverable gas. The reservoir properties were found to be moderate to good. In the Snadd Formation the well encountered water bearing sand with good reservoir properties.
The well was not production tested but an extensive data acquisition programme was carried out which included conventional coring and fluid sampling.
This is the sixth well in PL609 which was awarded following the 21st concession round in 2011. It was drilled to a total depth of 1,293 vertical metres below mean sea level in basement rock. The water depth is 387 metres. The well is now being permanently plugged and abandoned.
DEA Norge AS holds 30% interest in the licence, Lundin Norway AS (operator) 40% and Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS 30%.