Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway — DNO has discovered gas condensate in the Norma prospect in the central Norwegian North Sea, opening a new play in the area’s deep turbiditic sands.
The Deepsea Yantai semisub drilled the HP/HT well—DNO’s first as an operator—to a TVD of 4,800 m in license PL984, 30 km south of the Alvheim complex and 20 km northwest of Balder.
At 4,650 m, the well encountered a 16-m hydrocarbon column in a 20-m gross reservoir section in good-quality Jurassic sandstones. Early analysis suggests recoverable resources in the range 25 MMboe to 130 MMboe.
Along with gas condensate samples and a water sample, the team acquired a bypass core of 33.7 m.
Results from Norma have also de-risked other exploration prospects identified on the license. Norma is situated in an area with extensive infrastructure in the central part of the North Sea, with tieback options offering potential routes to commercialization.
“Coming on the heels of our six Troll-Gjøa area discoveries since 2021, three of which were made this year including Carmen, Heisenberg and Røver Sør, Norma opens up an exciting new play for DNO in the North Sea,” said executive chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani.
The company and partners Source Energy, Equinor Energy, Vår Energi and Aker BP plan to further delineate the discovery and the license’s upside potential in the license, but they will first perform improved seismic imaging and re-mapping to determine an optimal location for the next well.
Drilling of Norma should finish 15 days ahead of schedule and 8% below budget. P&A operations are already in progress.
Next up for Deepsea Yantai is an appraisal well on Neptune Energy’s 2022 Ofelia discovery in the North Sea (DNO 10%).
09.19.2023
