Equinor temporarily suspends Arkenstone drilling
Equinor Energy AS has temporarily suspended drilling on the Arkenstone NO 6610/7-3 exploration well in Norwegian Sea production license (PL) 1014 after encountering shallow gas, said partner OKEA ASA in a Dec. 17 release.
Two pilot wells were drilled by the semi-submersible rig Deepsea Atlantic 100 km north-east of Norne field in 230 m of water. The wells encountered shallow gas above the reservoir. Both pilots have been plugged with cement.
The license partners will engineer a solution to ensure that the Arkenstone well can be drilled safely, accounting for the shallow gas zone in the upper layers of the formation, OKEA said.
The drilling rig will now sail towards Equinor-operated PL1119 to spud the Mistral well.
Equinor is operator of the license with 80% interest. OKEA holds the remaining 20%.
Alex Procyk | Upstream Editor
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).