The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) revealed on Thursday that Aker BP ASA has made an oil discovery in the North Sea through the wild 25/4-15 well in production license 919.
NPD, which stressed that the objective of the well was to test for oil in Paleocene reservoir rocks in the Heimdal Formation, said the 25/4-15 well encountered an oil column of 31.5 meters in the Heimdal Formation, “29 meters of which was a sandstone deposit with good deposit quality”.
The Heimdal Formation had a total thickness of 187 meters, the NPD noted, adding that an oil/water contact was found 2,253 meters below sea level. A 1.5 meter zone of residual oil was also found in the deeper Heimdal sand with good reservoir quality, NPD noted.
The 25/4-15 well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,375 meters below sea level and completed in the Heimdal Formation in the Paleocene, NPD revealed. The water depth at the site is 119 meters, according to the organization.
“Preliminary calculations put the size of the discovery at between 0.5 and 0.8 million standard cubic meters of recoverable oil,” the NPD said.
“The licensees will evaluate the discovery along with other discoveries in the vicinity with a view to possible development,” the organization added.
According to NPD’s website, Aker BP has an 80% stake in production license 919, while ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS holds the remaining 20%. As of this writing, neither company’s website has made any announcements about the discovery.
Previous findings
The latest discovery announced by the NPD came on March 14, when the organization revealed that Equinor had made an oil and gas discovery near the Fram field in the North Sea. Preliminary estimates placed the size of the discovery between 3.8 and 13.3 million Sm3 Recoverable oil equivalent, according to the NPD.
On March 2, NPD revealed that Var Energi had made an oil discovery near the Goliat field in the Barents Sea. Preliminary estimates of the size of the discovery, in the segment that was drilled, were between 0.5 and 2.1 million Sm.3 the equivalent of recoverable oil, highlighted the NPD.
On February 10, the NPD explained that Aker BP had made an oil discovery near the Ivar Aasen field in the North Sea and on February 9, the organization revealed that Equinor had made an oil discovery and gas near the Troll field in the North Sea. Preliminary estimates put the size of the ancient discovery at between 0.5 and 1.4 million Sm3 of recoverable oil equivalent and the size of this latest discovery between 2.7 and 7.4 million Sm3 of recoverable oil equivalent, the NPD pointed out.
On January 18, the NPD revealed that Equinor had made a gas discovery near the Aasta Hansteen field in the Norwegian Sea. Preliminary estimates placed the size of this discovery between 2 and 11 billion Sm3 of recoverable gas, according to the NPD.
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