Wintershall Norwegian Sea oil discovery could warrant tie-back

Wintershall Dea Norge AS and partners will consider a tie-back of an oil discovery on the Bergknapp (Toshi) prospect in the Norwegian Sea. Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery at 4-15 million s cu m of recoverable oil equivalents.

Well 6406/3-10, the first exploration well in production license 836 S, was drilled about 8 km west of Maria field and 200 km north of Kristiansund to a vertical depth of 4,566 m subsea. It was terminated in the Are formation from the Early Jurassic Age. Water depth at the site is 313 m. The well was partially drilled by the West Mira drilling facility. It was then temporarily plugged before drilling was completed by the Scarabeo 8 drilling facility.

The primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Early and Middle Jurassic (Ile and Tilje formations). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Middle Jurrasic Age (Garn formation).

In the primary exploration target, the well encountered hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone layers totaling about 35 m in the Ile formation, with poor reservoir quality. The well encountered a total oil column of 120 m in the Tilje formation, with sandstone layers totaling about 75 m with poor to good reservoir quality. The oil-water contact was not encountered.

In the secondary exploration target, a total oil column of about 60 m was encountered in the Garn formation, with sandstone of poor to moderate reservoir quality. The oil-water contact was encountered at about 4,095 m subsea.

The well was not formation-tested, but data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.

Wintershall is operator of the license with 40%. Partners are Spirit Energy Norway AS 30% and DNO Norge AS 30%.