As announced two days ago by the NPD, Aker BP and partners Neptune (30%) and Lundin (15%) have not succeeded in proving commercial volumes in the Paleocene Lyderhorn prospect just south of the Rumpetroll discovery.
This may not be too much of a surprise though, given the estimated pre-drill volumes of only 6-14 MMboe. With a post-drill estimate of 5 MMboe, it can be concluded that even these initial volumes were slightly optimistic. Aker BP may indeed have proven the smallest find of the year so far, as we already hypothesised when the well had spudded.
24/12-7 encountered a 75 m thick Hermod Formation with a 38 m oil column in a total of 20 m of sandstone with very good to extremely good reservoir properties. The oil/water contact at 2132 metres below sea level was confirmed with pressure points.
In the secondary exploration target, the well encountered a total of 34 m of water-wet sandstone with good reservoir properties in the Heimdal Formation.
Combined with the minor and probably non-commercial discovery at Mugnetind – which proved up to 9.4 MMboe recoverable – this well campaign has clearly not resulted in the volumes initially hoped for.
HENK KOMBRINK
