Upstream writes on Monday that Equinor has confirmed that it has encountered hydrocarbons at the high profile Gjøkåsen Deep well in the southeastern Barents Sea.
Equinor does not want to go into detail about the results of the well nor when the operations are expected to be finished. Well 7132/2-2 was spudded on the 6th of January and operations were expected to last 46 days originally. According to Upstream the operator is now planning for 70 days and Equinor said the well is currently in the completion phase at reservoir depth.
Supporting the rumours is a safety event on the 6th of March, where Equinor experienced issues due to a pressure build-up at the well, which forced it to halt operations for two days. An Equinor spokesperson confirmed that the issues were caused by the inflow of gas from the reservoir, says Upstream.
The target of the well is to test the deeper Triassic exploration targets in the same structure as at Gjøkåsen shallow. The Gjøkåsen prospect is located on the Signalhorn Dome at the border of the Tiddlybanken Basin in the southeastern part of the Norwegian Barents Sea. Gjøkåsen shallow came in dry last month (read more in “First well on Gjøkåsen is dry”). Equinor expects to find oil similar to the oil in Wisting Central, i.e. a medium heavy oil. Partner Lundin estimates the mean recoverable resources in the Gjøkåsen Deep prospect to be 428mmboe.
CSEM data is not conclusive at the deeper Triassic level. According to EMGS there are some resistivity variations, but no distinct resistive anomaly. CSEM is less sensitive at these depths and not well calibrated to wells in the area.
Partners in PL857 are Equinor, operator with 40% working interest, Lundin Norway, Aker BP and Petoro with a 20 percent working interest each.
