Westwood Global Energy reports that there were two exploration and one appraisal wells active as of July 28. Key wells in July include frontier play tests at Stovegolvet and Stangnestind, both of which completed. A total of 17 exploration wells have completed to date in 2021, from which seven commercial discoveries have been made giving a 41% commercial success rate to date.
North Sea
Operations at Equinor and Total’s 31/11-1 S Stovegolvet exploration well were completed on June 28. The well is located in the Stord Basin of the northern North Sea and was a high risk, frontier test of the Lower Jurassic, with the nearest well more than 30 km away. The well failed to find hydrocarbons and was abandoned as a dry hole. However, it was successful in penetrating reservoir quality sandstones in the primary objective Johansen Formation and in the secondary objective Upper Jurassic Sognefjord and Middle Jurassic Fensfjord/Krossfjord Formations. Given the lack of hydrocarbons, the well appears to have failed primarily due to a lack of source in the area or charge into the structure. The well was also drilled to assess reservoir properties with respect to CO2 storage.
Also in July, operations completed at OMV’s 1/3-13 Ommadawn well (non-commercial oil discovery) and MOL’s 25/8-22 S Iving appraisal well (result pending). Drilling commenced at Lundin’s 16/1-34 S Lille Prinsen appraisal well on July 7 and a second exploration sidetrack from Wintershall DEA’s 31/4-A-1 well, targeting the Talisker East prospect, was kicked-off on July 20, following the first sidetrack which commenced on June 21.
Norwegian Sea
In June, Wintershall DEA’s 6406/3-10 Bergknapp discovery well was re-entered to complete data acquisition, including a DST, that was unable to be performed in the discovery well due to Covid-19 and associated restrictions. The well was subsequently sidetracked on July 14 and operations on this were ongoing at the time of writing.
Barents Sea
Operations on Aker BP’s 7234/6-1 Stangnestind exploration well completed on July 19. The well, a firm commitment on 23rd round acreage, was a very high risk, frontier test of a regional scale mega-closure which extends into Russia and targeted the Permian – Carboniferous Orn Formation. The well encountered a 187ft, high CO2 content gas column in the target formation, 85ft of which comprised dolomites with poor to moderate reservoir quality. Resources of 60-75 bcf are non-commercial at this location, however the well was successful in proving a working petroleum system on the Fedynsky High.
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