Equinor and its partners have made an oil discovery near the producing Visund field in the Norwegian North Sea following the drilling of the Telesto exploration well.
Image: The Visund field is located 22 km north-east of the Gullfaks field. Photo: courtesy of Harald Pettersen/Equinor ASA.
The new oil discovery near the Visund field is estimated to have 12-28 million barrels of recoverable oil in place, said Equinor.
Drilling of the Telesto exploration well or well number 34/8-18 S began in early February about 2.5km east of the Visund A platform in production licence 120 in the Tampen area contained in the northern part of the North Sea.
The Telesto well intersected an oil column of nearly 115m in the upper and lower part of the Statfjord group, with effective reservoir of 17 and 20m respectively, in sandstone primarily with moderate reservoir quality.
The company alongside its partners Petoro, ConocoPhillips and Repsol will look into how to develop the new oil discovery, including a plan to link it up with existing infrastructure on the Visund field.
Equinor Norway and the UK exploration senior vice president Nick Ashton said: “We are pleased to have made a new discovery on Equinor-operated acreage on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). These are profitable barrels that can be quickly tied in to existing infrastructure and generate substantial revenues for society. Infrastructure-led exploration is an important part of our roadmap for the NCS.”
In the upper part of the Lunde formation in the Upper Triassic, the Telesto exploration well encountered around 15m of aquiferous sandstone with poor reservoir quality. The oil-water contact was intersected in the lower Statfjord group at nearly 3,170m below sea level.
Equinor said that geological data of the oil discovery has been acquired for further analysis, and the wildcat well has been plugged and abandoned.
Equinor operations west senior vice president Gunnar Nakken said: “We have a well developed infrastructure that enables high generation of value in the North Sea. We have set ourselves an ambitious goal of sustaining high production from the NCS for decades, and discoveries like this are essential towards this end.
“It will be natural to tie in the resources to the Visund A platform.”
Visund is an oil and gas field, contained in blocks 34/8 and 34/7, and located 22 km north-east of the Gullfaks field. Oil production from the offshore field began in 1999 while gas production in 2005.