Exploration well 30/8-4 S was drilled by the Transocean Winner semi-submersible drilling unit. Hydrocarbons were struck in the upper parts of the Brent group and drilling was terminated in Middle Jurassic rocks.
Tom Dreyer
"We have made a small oil discovery in the Curran prospect south of the Tune field," says Tom Dreyer, vice president for exploration in this part of the North Sea.
"With today's oil price the field is not quite commercial but that could change in the time to come," he says. "In any case, we are pleased to have proven more resources near our installations in the Oseberg area."
The purpose of the drilling was to test a petroleum trap which lies south of Tune, below one of the big north-south-running faults in the Oseberg area. No wells have ever before been drilled in this type of trap in the same area.
Poor reservoir properties characterise the major part of the Brent group but one interval in the Tarbert formation shows light oil in sandstone with worthwhile production properties.
The size of the find in the producible interval is within the uncertainty range of 3-15.7 million barrels of oil equivalent, with most of the volumes as oil.
The well has been plugged and abandoned and a possible tie-back from the discovery to installations in the area will be considered. Transocean Winner will now drill well 30/5-3 in the northern part of the Oseberg area.
Licensees in production licence 190 (the Tune licence) are: StatoilHydro - operator (50%), Petoro (40%) and Total (10%).
