Offshore staff
KASSEL, Germany – Wintershall Norge is nearing completion of an appraisal well on the Skarfjell oil and gas discovery in the Norwegian North Sea.
The company made theoriginal find in April 2012 on PL 418 in Upper Jurassic reservoir rocks. This was followed immediately by a 3D seismic survey over the accumulation.
At the time, Wintershall estimated resources in the 60-160 MMbbl range. However, following the results of the appraisal well 1.8 km (1.12 mi) to the south, designed to test reservoir extent, thickness and quality, partner Cairn Energy has revised the resource range to 74-235 MMbbl.
Simon Thomson, Cairn’s CEO, said: “Skarfjell is one of the largest discoveries in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea in recent years. The combination of very good reservoir and large volumes will allow this discovery to be progressed towards development, with a number of commercially attractive options possible including a stand-alone facility or a hub development incorporating surrounding undeveloped discoveries.”
Skarfjell is 16 km (9.9 mi) southwest of theGDF Suez-operated Gjøa field in the northeastern Norwegian North Sea. According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the appraisal well, drilled by the semisubmersible Transocean Arctic, intersected a 64-m (210-ft) oil column in the Heather formation, also encountering the oil/water contact.
This was the second exploration well on the license, awarded under Norway’s APA 2006 round.
Transocean Arctic now heads to PL 511 in the Norwegian Sea to drill wildcat well 6406/6-3 for Wintershall.
4/9/2013
