Two new oil discoveries made by Statoil could be tied back to Gullfaks about five kilometres to the north-east, strengthening production in the Tampen area of the North Sea.
The goal for exploration well 34/10-49 in production licence 050 was to explore the oil and gas potential in Cretaceous and Jurassic sandstones.
It was planned with two separate paths in order to clarify a total of five drilling targets – Epidot, Alun, Spinell, Sølvkåpe and Apollo.
The deepest path, 34/10-49 S and B, was drilled to 5,480 metres beneath the seabed and terminated in early Cretaceous rocks.
Drilled as a sidetrack, 34/10-49 A extended for 3,312 metres into rocks from the middle Jurassic. Two small oil discoveries were made in these sands in the Epidot and Alun targets.
“We believe these discoveries contain a combined 15 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent,” says Lars Christian Bacher, senior vice president for the Tampen cluster.
“Although they’re relatively small, the economics of producing them are good.
“We still have many opportunities to make new discoveries in the Tampen area, which will be important for further development of the installations there.”
After permanently plugging the well, the Ocean Vanguard rig will move to the Norwegian Sea to drill for Statoil on the Valkyrie prospect.
In addition to operator Statoil, with a 61% holding, the partners in PL 050 are Petoro with 30% and Norsk Hydro with 9%.