Aldous Major North find warrants more drilling
A partnership led by Statoil Petroleum AS will consider further exploratory drilling to clarify the potential of the Aldous Major North structure in the North Sea off Norway.
Samples from Well 16/2-9S, 12 km northwest of the Aldous Major South 16/2-8 oil discovery, proved an oil column as thick as 8 m in Upper Jurassic, the same formation as at Aldous Major South. Well 16/2-9S went to 2,047 m true vertical depth subsea in 115 m of water.
The wells are on separate structures in the PL 265 license. The group will consider more drilling at Aldous Major North because the reservoir was thinner and of lesser quality than anticipated.
Statoil held firm to its previous estimate that the Aldous Major South and Avaldsnes discoveries may constitute an oil structure of 500 million-1.2 billion bbl of oil equivalent recoverable.
On completion of Well 16/2-9S, the Transocean Leader semisubmersible will drill the 16/2-10 appraisal well at Aldous Major South.
Statoil is operator of PL 265 with 40% interest, Petoro has 30%, Det norske oljeselskap 20%, and Lundin Petroleum AB 10%.
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.
