DNO ASA announced Monday an oil and gas discovery in an area of the Norwegian North Sea that it said has attracted little exploration interest, putting the size between 27 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) and 57 MMboe.
The exploration and production company and its partners made the discovery in the Othello prospect of production license (PL) 1086, granted under the 2021 Awards in Predefined Areas. Besides the discovery well (wildcat well 2/6-7 S), an appraisal well (2/6-7 A) was also drilled, according to a separate announcement by the Norwegian Offshore Directorate.
DNO said in a statement, “Light oil was discovered in Palaeocene sandstones of good reservoir quality with preliminary estimates of gross recoverable resources in the range of 27-57 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) on a P90-P10 basis, with a mean of 41 MMboe”.
“As this is the first time moveable oil has been encountered in the Borr unit of the Våle Formation in the Norwegian sector, the discovery is considered a play opener”, added the statement on the company’s website.
“The well had two exploration targets, a deeper prospect (Falstaff) where no reservoir was encountered and a shallower prospect (Othello) where a 16-meter [52.49 feet] net oil bearing reservoir was encountered. This discovery was subsequently confirmed in a sidetrack”.
DNO operates the license with a 50 percent stake. The partners are Aker BP ASA (20 percent), Norway’s state-owned Petoro AS (20 percent) and Source Energy AS (10 percent).
“The Othello discovery marks the second new play DNO, as operator, has proven recently in Norway, following last year’s Norma discovery (30 percent and operator)”, DNO added.
“Remarkably, Othello has discovered oil east in the basin where migration risk was commonly thought to be too high. In recent years, the industry has shown little exploration interest in this area, which has been disparagingly called ‘the dry belt’.
“Together with its partners, DNO is already considering tying back the discovery to existing infrastructure, with the ConocoPhillips Ekofisk hub some 40 kilometers [24.85 miles] to the west and the Valhall hub operated by Aker BP some 55 kilometers [34.18 miles] to the southwest”.
In the nearby PL1085, DNO and partners Aker BP and Petoro are also considering developing the 2022 Overly discovery as a tieback to the Valhull hub after recent studies raised estimates of recoverable resources, DNO said.
After the PL1086 campaign, the Noble Invincible jackup will now move to drill a production well in the nearby Tambar East oilfield, DNO said. It holds a 37.8 percent stake in Tambar East, while Aker BP is the operator with 46.2 percent.
Additionally, Aker BP and DNO also plan to drill an exploration well in the nearby PL 1171. Aker BP operates this license with a 50 percent stake while DNO owns the other half.
“In addition to our ongoing exploration campaign, we will focus on other identified, and now derisked by Othello, prospects in the area”, DNO executive chair Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani said.
DNO closed higher at NOK 10.27 ($0.93) on Monday on the Oslo stock exchange.
Source: By Jov Onsat from rigzone.com