A wildcat on the Valkyrie structure close to the Statoil-operated Norne field in the Norwegian Sea has been completed without yielding commercial hydrocarbons.
The Norne production ship ranks as one of the most profitable units on the Norwegian continental shelf, and great expectations have been aroused for continued development of the area.
Oil was found two years ago in the Linerle and Falk structures, and a discovery in Valkyrie would have further strengthened the local resource base.
It might also have justified a separate infrastructure, so Jostein Gaasemyr, operations vice president for Norne, is very disappointed by the results of the latest well.
“We’d hoped to prove substantial reserves,” he says. “We’ll now be going through the well data in order to take a new look at our strategy for the whole area.”
The wildcat has now been permanently plugged and abandoned, and plans call for another exploration well on the Valkyrie structure early next year.
This formation is located just over 25 kilometres north-east of Norne in production licence 128, and 2.7 kilometres south-east of the Linerle discovery.
Drilled to a total depth of 2,248 metres, the 6608/11-5 exploration well terminated in Triassic rocks. It aimed to prove hydrocarbons in Lower Jurassic and Upper Triassic sands, but only traces were discovered.
The drilling operation was conducted from Ocean Vanguard, which has now been taken over by Shell for a well in production licence 93 close to Draugen in the Norwegian Sea.