The new gas discovery by Equinor Energy is located 15km northwest of discovery well 7325/1-1 (Atlantis) and 370km north of Hammerfest.
The well’s primary exploration target was to prove oil in reservoir rocks from the Late Triassic Age (upper part of the Snadd formation).
The wildcat well 7324/3-1’s primary exploration target was to prove the presence of oil in reservoir rocks from the Late Triassic Age. Following its drilling to 1678m by the West Hercules drilling facility, the well encountered a total gas column of about 30m in the upper part of the Snadd formation to meet the primary exploration target.
Out of the 30m or so of gas column intersected, 20m was in an effective reservoir of mainly moderate to poor reservoir quality.
The secondary exploration target of the wild cat well was to prove presence of petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Middle Jurassic Age and also in a deeper exploration target from the Middle Triassic Age.
Gas was intersected in sandstone of poor to moderate reservoir quality as well in the secondary exploration target in the lower part of the Snadd formation.
Equinor Energy is yet to confirm the gas column as efforts to define a gas gradient were not possible because of the tight formation.
As far as the other secondary exploration target is concerned, the company reported that 15m of aquiferous reservoir sandstone was intersected in the Stø formation, with moderate to good reservoir quality.
Equinor Energy, in a statement, said: “Preliminary calculations of the size of the discovery in the upper part of the Snadd formation are between 10 and 20 billion standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable gas.
“In the lower part of the Snadd formation, the gas volume is estimated at between 1 and 4 billion standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable gas.”
The company said that currently the profitability of the new gas discovery is not clear. It revealed that the wildcat well 7324/3-1 will be permanently plugged and abandoned.
In June 2018, Equinor Energy, which is also an operator of production license 167, reported a minor oil and gas discovery in the central part of the North Sea following the drilling of the wildcat well 16/1-29 S.
