A promising oil discovery has been made during exploratory drilling of the Astero prospect North of the Fram field in the North Sea.
The exploratory well designated 35/11-13 was drilled to a total depth of 3266 metres with the drilling rig Deepsea Trym. The water depth in the area is 361 metres.
“We have found oil and some gas in rocks dating from the late Jura period and consider the find to be promising and commercially interesting. This find will make further exploration activities in the Fram area more interesting,” says Lars Christian Alsvik, Director of Development Norway.
The drilling of the Astero prospect began on March 18, and the total drilling depth was reached at the end of April. Since then Deepsea Trym has been used for production testing of the find. During testing a production rate of 3,150 barrels per day was achieved.
Alsvik emphasises that a final decision has not been made to develop the Astero find.
“We will evaluate development solutions in connection with the Fram field and the Troll C platform. At the moment we can’t go into detail about how large the recoverable reserves are in this instance, but the size is significant enough that we are also considering other development solutions,” he says.
Partners on the Fram field:
| Hydro (operator) | 25 % |
| ExxonMobil | 25 % |
| Statoil | 20 % |
| Idemitsu | 15 % |
| Gaz de France | 15 % |
Location:
Block 35/11, about 120 kilometers west of Florø.