Equinor Ventures is pleased to announce an investment in Hydrophilic, a Stavanger based technology company that aims to reduce the need for appraisal well and sidetrack drilling during exploration campaigns.
An accurate estimate of the hydrocarbon volumes in an exploration discovery is essential in order to evaluate the economic value of a field and to make expensive field development decisions. The total hydrocarbon resources cannot be calculated without knowing the hydrocarbon-water contact (HWC) of the reservoir. Hydrophilic have developed an openhole wireline technology to determine the hydrocarbon volume in a reservoir without the need of drilling through the HWC and hence limiting the need for appraisal and sidetrack drilling.
Nicholas Ashton, Senior Vice President in Equinor Exploration, commented: “The future world energy demand will increase, and oil will remain an important part of the energy mix for the long-term. Existing assets cannot close the supply-demand gap so exploration remains important to secure worldwide access to energy. We will however, minimize our impact on the climate through our strategy of exploring for high-value, low-carbon resources. Hydrophilic has the potential to support this ambition by reducing our CO2 emissions during exploration operations in addition to reducing the costs of exploration activity by drilling fewer wells.”
Equinor has supported the technology development since 2017, initially through R&T Blue Sky funding and subsequently through early phase project funding from Equinor Ventures. The Hydrophilic value proposition has attracted broad interest amongst operators on the NCS, which resulted in a joint industry project consisting of Equinor, Wintershall DEA, Vår Energi, AkerBP and OMV. The Hydrophilic logging tool will be ready for field testing in Q4 2021.