Gas discovery in the Barents Sea

During the drilling of exploration well 7226/2-1 in the Barents Sea StatoilHydro, the operator of the licence, has struck gas in a prospect named Ververis. The drilling in 347 metres of water was performed by the Polar Pioneer drilling rig.

This is the 13th discovery on the Norwegian continental shelf that StatoilHydro is involved in this year.

The main purpose of the well was to confirm the existence of hydrocarbons in early Jurassic to mid-Jurassic sandstones. The well confirmed the existence of gas in mid-Jurassic sandstones. No gas/water contact was established. Nor has any formation leak-off test been conducted, but extensive data acquisition and sampling have taken place.

”It is of course promising that we have discovered gas, but the drilling was performed in a relatively complex formation. We therefore need to perform more analyses and evaluations in order to determine the resource potential of the discovery,” says Bente Fotland at StatoilHydro’s Harstad office.

Ververis is the first well in production licence 395, which was awarded in the 19th licensing round in 2006.

“The licence was awarded in April 2006, and seismic data were shot during the summer of 2006. The entire project was in fact completed sooner than expected,” Fotland says.

The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2992 metres below the sea surface and completed in the lower Triassic Havert formation. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned. Polar Pioneer will move on to drill exploration well 7224/6-1 in production licence 394, operated by StatoilHydro.

The licensees in production licence 395 are: StatoilHydro ASA (operator) (50 prosent), BG Norge AS (30 prosent), Petoro AS (20 prosent).

The drilling of exploration well 6605/8-2 in a structure named Stetind in the Norwegian Sea is being completed without any recoverable hydrocarbons being confirmed.

The well was drilled by the Transocean Leader drilling rig. After completing this well the rig will move on to production licence 218 in the Norwegian Sea for the drilling of exploration well 6706/12-1, operated by StatoilHydro.

The licensees in production licence 283 are: StatoilHydro (operator, 30 percent), Centrica (10 percent), Chevron (12.5 percent), Aker Exploration AS (12.5 percent), ConocoPhillips (15 percent) and Petoro (20 percent).