Although the ultimate recoverable volumes from the Rolvsnes fractured basement field are probably less than the initial numbers Lundin presented at the start of the Extended Well Test that commenced in August 2021, the operator does go ahead submitting a Plan for Development and Operation for the field.
This was presented during a talk at the NCS Exploration – Recent Discoveries Conference in Oslo yesterday by Jan Erik Lie from Lundin Energy.
Whilst Lundin initially estimated that Rolvsnes could produce between 14 and 78 MMboe, the NPD now carries Rolvsnes as having 3.1 MMboe of estimated resources.
According to Lie, the whole length of the 2.5 km horizontal well (16/1-28) contributed to production, which peaked at 1,700 m3/day (10,700 barrels/day). Despite early water coning, water cut quickly stabilised at around 60%. This may in part be due to the limited aquifer the field is connected to.
It is interesting to see that Lundin presses ahead with the development of Rolvsnes, even though the recoverable resources are low, drilling long horizontal wells is not cheap and the expected production rates are low. For that reason, the company was shortlisted for the Exploration Innovation Prize 2022.
The development will result in a lot more information gained on this fractured basement field, which could be leveraged against other potential basement projects in the future.
HENK KOMBRINK
