Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – Wintershall Norge has completed drilling a wildcat and appraisal well that discovered oil in Asha prospect in the central Norwegian North Sea.
The semisubmersibleBredford Dolphin drilled wells 16/1-16 and 16/1-16 A wells in 113 m (371 ft) of water on license PL 457, about 3 km (1.8 mi) east of Det norske oljeselskap’s 16/1-9 Ivar Aasen discovery well and 3 km north of the Edvard Grieg field.
Exploration well 16/1-16 encountered a 70-m (229-ft) gross oil column in the Hugin and Skagerrak formations, of which 28 m (92 ft) were in a good-quality Hugin reservoir. The oil/water contact was not identified.
The oil is of a different type to Ivar Aasen’s, and pressure in the oil zone in the Hugin formation and the upper part of the Skagerrak formation is 0.6 bar (8.7 psi) lower. No gas cap was encountered, unlike the western part of Ivar Aasen.
The 16/1-16 A appraisal well, drilled just south of 16/1-16, intersected a gross oil column of more than 30 m (98 ft) in the Hugin formation, with the latter around twice the thickness encountered in the exploration well. The oil/water contact was 2,440 m (8,005 ft) below sea level, 6 m (19.7 ft) deeper than the contact point in the western part of Ivar Aasen.
According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, initial analysis suggests 3-6 MM cu m (19-38 MMcf) of oil recoverable.
1/11/2013
