Equinor Energy AS will plug exploration well 7335/3-1 in PL 859, which was drilled 8 km southeast of the 7435/12-1 (Korpfjell) natural gas discovery in the Barents Sea, and 435 km north of Vardo (OGJ Online, Aug. 29, 2017). The well was dry.
The well—the second in the license—was drilled to a vertical depth of 4,268 m subsea drilled by Seadrill’s West Hercules semisubmersible drilling rig in 239 m of water. It was terminated in the lower part of the Havert formation.
The primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Early Triassic Age (upper and lower part of the Havert formation). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum and reservoir rocks in the Snadd and Kobbe formations from the Middle to Late Triassic Age.
In the primary exploration target in the Havert formation, as well as in the overlying Klappmyss formation (from the Early to Middle Triassic Age), the well encountered sandy, but mainly tight intervals.
Sandy zones were encountered in the secondary exploration target in the Kobbe formation over an interval of about 125 m, these were also mainly tight. In the Snadd formation, sandy intervals were encountered with poor reservoir quality. Some thin sandstone layers in the Triassic revealed traces of gas.
The Realgrunnen subgroup (from the Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic Age) was not an exploration target for the well, but some 170 m of sandstone reservoir of moderate to good quality were proven.
Data has been collected and samples have been taken.
The rig will now drill wildcat well 7324/6-1 in PL 855 in the Barents Sea, where Equinor Energy AS is operator.
