DNO claims to have opened a new exploration play in the southern Norwegian North Sea with its Othello oil discovery.
The Noble Invincible jackup drilled the well in 56 m water depth on PL1086, encountering light oil in Palaeocene sandstones with recoverable estimated at 27 MMboe to 57 MMboe.
According to DNO, this is the first time that moveable oil has been proven in the Borr unit of the Våle Formation on the basin’s eastern flank, where there had previously been little exploration due to a perceived migration risk.
The well had two exploration targets:
- In the deeper prospect (Falstaff), no reservoir was encountered during drilling.
- Within the shallower Othello prospect, the well intersected a 16-m net oil-bearing reservoir.
DNO and the license partners are considering a tieback to nearby offshore production infrastructure. The ConocoPhillips-operated Ekofisk hub is 40 km to the west, while Aker BP’s Valhall hub is 55 km to the southwest.
Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, DNO’s executive chairman, said the company would now look at other prospects in the area that have been de-risked by Othello.
In nearby PL1085, operator Aker BP, in partnership with DNO and state-owned Petoro, is assessing a potential tieback of the 2022 Overly discovery to Valhall, 10 km to the south, after new studies upgraded the estimate of the recoverable resource.
Next, Noble Invincible will drill a production well for Aker BP on the nearby Tambar East oil field (DNO, 37.8%).
The two companies have planned an exploratory well in 2026 on the Sunndal prospect in PL1171.
