Wellesley Petroleum discovers hydrocarbons southwest of Florø

Wellesley Petroleum AS discovered oil and gas in Gnomoria appraisal well 35/10-12 S in the North Sea, about 100 km southwest of Florø in 363 m of water.

The well, the first appraisal in production license (PL) 1184 S, was drilled by the COSL Promoter exploration rig to a vertical depth of 3,346 m below sea level (3,805 m measured depth below sea level).

The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Upper Jurassic sandstones in the Heather formation. The well was drilled upflank, where reservoir quality was better for delineation of the Gnomoria discovery from 2018.

The well encountered an 11-m gas column and an 18-m oil column in the Heather formation in a sandstone layer totaling 21 m with poor to moderate reservoir quality. The gas-oil contact was encountered 3,239 m below sea level. The oil-water contact was not encountered.

The well was not formation tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling were carried out. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

Preliminary estimations of the size of the discovery is 0.8-4 million standard cu m of recoverable oil equivalent, corresponding to 5-25 MMboe.

Gnomoria is in an area with multiple discoveries. The licensees are considering a tie-back to existing infrastructure in the area.

Wellesley Petroleum is operator at PL 1184 S (10%) with Equinor Energy AS holding the remaining 90%.