Oil Discovery in the North Sea
Oil has been proven by Statoil and its partners Det norske oljeselskap ASA and Svenska Petroleum Exploration AS on the North Sea Krafla prospect. The well is located in block 30/11 around 26 km south of the Oseberg South field. Based on preliminary calculations the size of the discovery is between 12.5 and 56.5 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. “Statoil has had great exploration success in mature areas during the last years.”
Gro Gunleiksrud Haatvedt, Statoil’s head of exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) continuous: “The North Sea is a strategically important area to Statoil, and this discovery on Krafla confirms once again that the company can still find interesting volumes close to established infrastructure. These discoveries can quickly be put on stream and help extend the life of our installations.”
Ocean Vanguard Rig
Drilled by the Ocean Vanguard rig the well proved a column of around 200 m in good quality reservoir rocks. “Previously six exploration wells have been drilled in block 30/11 without commercial success, so we are very pleased that Statoil seems to have made a fast track discovery in our first operated well in this license”, comments Tom Dreyer, exploration manager for the Northern North Sea. “Although data collection is still ongoing, the results so far clearly indicate that this is an oil discovery. If this is the case then we have unlocked the exploration potential of this area and have several follow-up opportunities.”
When the Krafla well is completed, the Ocean Vanguard will start drilling the planned sidetrack well on Krafla West, which is located west of the recently drilled well. The find will probably be developed and produced by tie-back to one of the subsea installations in the Oseberg area.
The licensees in PL035/PL272 are: Statoil (operator) (50%), Det norske oljeselskap ASA (25%) and Svenska Petroleum Exploration AS (25%).