Vår Energi and Equinor have discovered a new gas and condensate field in well 6407/5-3 S located in the Gimsan area of the Norwegian Sea. This new field, known as Lakris, was drilled at a depth of 4,225 meters below sea level and is situated 170 kilometers northwest of Kristiansund.
Well Details and Drilling Operations
This well is the first exploratory well drilled in production license 1002, which was awarded during the APA 2018 round on March 1, 2019. Vår Energi acted as the operator and Equinor as a partner in this project, conducting the drilling using the semi-submersible rig COSL Prospector.
The water depth at the drilling site was 218 meters, and well 6407/5-3 S will be permanently plugged and abandoned due to the lack of formation tests. The main objective of drilling this well was to prove the presence of oil in the calcareous reservoir rocks of the Nise formation as well as in the lower Jurassic reservoir rocks of the Tilje formation.
Discovery Results and Assessments
According to data from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, hydrocarbon indicators in the lower Tilje formation were confirmed. Although the well was unable to locate the sandstone reservoir rock in the Nise formation, high gas quantities were recorded in this area. The Garn, Ile, and Tofte formations were also examined, but these areas exhibited medium to poor reservoir quality.
Well 6407/5-3 S discovered gas and condensate in heterolithic reservoir rocks in the upper Tilje formation, totaling 54 meters in length. A gas/water contact was not identified in this well. Preliminary calculations suggest that the size of this discovery is estimated to be between 0.2 to 0.9 million cubic meters of recoverable oil, equivalent to 1.3 to 5.5 million barrels of oil equivalent.
This new hydrocarbon discovery in Norwegian waters comes a few months after the collaboration of Equinor, Aker BP, and Vår Energi to search for major hydrocarbon discoveries in the Norwegian Royal.
