Details -schmeetails16 Apr 2012 17:45
Significant light oil discovery at the Skarfjell Prospect
The Stavanger-based oil company Agora Oil & Gas AS (“Agora”) is pleased to announce that Wintershall Norge AS, as the operator of Norwegian production licence 418 (Agora 20%), is in the process of completing drilling of wildcat well 35/9-7 in the north-eastern Norwegian North Sea as an oil discovery.
The well drilled on the Skarfjell Prospect is located approximately 17 kilometres (km) southwest of the Gjøa Field between the Grosbeak Discovery in PL378 to the south and the Titan Discovery in PL420 to the north. The exploration target for the well was to prove hydrocarbons in upper Jurassic reservoir rocks.
The well found very good quality upper Jurassic reservoir sandstone containing light oil over a 168 metres (m) gross interval. No fluid contact was observed, and downdip appraisal is therefore required to establish the height of the oil column in the Skarfjell structure. Due to ongoing rig schedule commitments the well was not tested but extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.
An estimated preliminary resource range is between 60 and 160 million barrels of recoverable oil. The discovery is likely to be commercial, and a new 3D seismic acquisition programme over the discovery is already underway. The licence group will now focus on integrating the well and seismic data in order to plan the required appraisal programme for the discovery. The 35/9-7 well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
The well was drilled by the Songa Delta drilling unit to a vertical depth of 2976m below the sea surface and terminated in the Middle Jurassic Brent Gp / Rannoch Fm. Water depth at the site is 368m.
The PL418 license group comprises Wintershall Norge ASA (45%, Op.), Bayerngas Norge AS (20%), Agora (20%) and Edison International Norway Branch (15%).
Svein Ilebekk, Chief Executive of Agora Oil & Gas said:
“We are very pleased to make such a promising discovery with our first well in the Norwegian sector. The combination of good reservoir properties, long oil column and large in place volumes makes us confident in the commerciality of Skarfjell and we see good potential for the appraisal campaign to prove further upside volumes beyond the current range indicated by this well.
On April 3rd, it was announced that Cairn Energy PLC has proposed to acquire Agora. Skarfjell highlights the benefits of such a transaction; Cairn’s size and strength will help us support the development and production of Skarfjell, should that ultimately prove to be the most attractive way of realising value from this discovery.”
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