Oil strike near Vigdis

An oil discovery has been made by Statoil in the M5 structure in the Tampen area of the North Sea, which will be produced through the installations on the group’s Vigdis field just to the north.

Exploration well 34/7-D-4 H was drilled to a total measured depth of 4,572 metres from Ocean Vanguard, with oil proven in Brent Group rocks dating from the Jurassic.

To optimise production from the area, a sidetrack was immediately drilled from this well as 34/7-D-4 AH to a total measured depth of 4,400 metres.

Plans call for the well to be completed for production by the Borgland Dolphin rig during October before it is brought on stream.

“It’s too early to say anything about the size of this discovery,” says Elin Loktu Rosnes, manager for the Tordis/Vigdis subsurface department.

“But even minor volumes will be economic to produce since we already have established infrastructure in this area.”

The M5 structure lies in production licence 089, where the water depth is around 251 metres.

Vigdis has been developed with subsea templates tied back to Statoil’s Snorre A tension leg platform, with wellstream transfer in two pipelines.

Operator Statoil has 28.22 per cent of PL 089. Its partners are Petoro with 30 per cent, Hydro 13.28 per cent, ExxonMobil 10.5 per cent, Idemitsu Petroleum Norge 9.6 per cent, Total 5.6 per cent and RWE-Dea 2.8 per cent.