The 6604/6-1 exploration well on the Gullstjerne prospect, drilled by Wintershall DEA NORGE AS in license PL 894 in the Norwegian Sea, turned out to be dry, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate confirmed in a press release this morning. Partners in the license are Equinor Energy AS and Petoro AS.
The well aimed for petroleum in Upper Cretaceous reservoir rocks (the Springar Formation), which was a success for 6604/5-1 ‘Balderbrå’ in the same license in 2018.
The press release states that: “Well 6604/6-1 encountered a total of about 185 meters of sandstone rocks in the Springar Formation, with reservoir rocks in three zones totaling about 120 meters. The reservoir rocks are mainly of poor to moderate reservoir quality. The sandstones contain traces of gas. The well is classified as dry.”
The 2018 discovery 6604/5-1 ‘Balderbrå’ was presented at an NPF conference in 2019, the commercial value and possible tie-in to the new gas field Aasta Hansteen are still uncertain, Gullstjerne was regarded as a high-chance-of-success well, to be tied in together with the discovery. Resources in ‘Balderbrå’ are calculated to be between 7 and 19 billion Sm3 of recoverable gas and between 1 and 3 million Sm3 of recoverable condensate.
As for the ‘Balderbrå’ reservoir, Springar Fm contains late Campanian to Maastrichtian deep marine sandstone turbidites. These sandstones are draped over rifted fault blocks and covered by a Paleogene seal. The source rocks were likely to be Cretaceous shales, the Cenomanian Lange Fm. The now proven dry ‘Gullstjerne’ was strengthened as a drilling target by amplitude-support.
The Scarabeo 8 drilling facility will now go on to drill the appraisal well 6604/5-2 S, on the ‘Balderbrå’ discovery.
We are also awaiting the result of the other on-going Wintershall DEA well in the Norwegian Sea, the 6406/3-10 with the ‘Bergknapp’ prospect with Fangst group reservoir target.
Text: TERJE SOLBAKK
