Centrica group has light oil discovery off Norway
A group led by Centrica PLC made an oil discovery in the Upper Jurassic Ula formation at the Butch prospect in the North Sea off Norway.
The 8/10-4S discovery well encountered 50 m of oil pay. The entire reservoir section was found to be oil-bearing and an oil-water contact was not penetrated. The group will drill a downdip sidetrack to appraise for further oil volumes down on the large salt-induced structure and to try to locate the oil-water contact.
Preliminary results based on extensive coring, wireline logs, and pressure data show that the well has encountered a light oil in good quality reservoir sands with a very high net-to-gross ratio.
Butch is in 66 m of water 7 km east of giant Ula field, 10 km northeast of Tambar field, and 20 km north of Gyda field.
Centrica operates the license with 40% interest, Suncor Norge AS has 30%, Spring Energy Norway AS has 15%, and Faroe Petroleum PLC 15%.
Alan Petzet | Chief Editor Exploration
Alan Petzet is Chief Editor-Exploration of Oil & Gas Journal in Houston. He is editor of the Weekly E&D Newsletter, emailed to OGJ subscribers, and a regular contributor to the OGJ Online subscriber website.
Petzet joined OGJ in 1981 after 13 years in the Tulsa World business-oil department. He was named OGJ Exploration Editor in 1990. A native of Tulsa, he has a BA in journalism from the University of Tulsa.