Orlen drills dry hole in Norwegian Sea

Orlen Upstream Norway AS drilled a dry well in production license (PL) 1055 in the southern Norwegian Sea.

Wildcat well Tomcat 6305/10-1 was drilled by the Deepsea Yantai rig about 40 km south of Ormen Lange field in 367 m of water. The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 3,993 m subsea. It was terminated in the Lange formation in the Lower Cretaceous.

The objective was to prove petroleum in Upper Cretaceous reservoir rocks in the Lysing formation. The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in Upper Cretaceous reservoir rocks belonging to the Kvitnos and Lysing formations.

The primary exploration target was encountered 3,806 m below sea level. The reservoir zone was 118 m thick with alternating siltstone, limestone, and some thin sandstone layers with generally poor reservoir quality. No reservoir was proven in the secondary exploration targets.

The well has been permanently plugged.

Orlen Upstream Norway is operator at PL 1055 (60%) with partner A/S Norske Shell (40%).