STATOILHYDRO has made a fresh discovery with an exploration well drilled about 35km east of the Gudrun field and some 30km south of the Grane field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
Norway’s state operator said that gas and oil, with associated condensate, were found in rocks interpreted to be Jurassic or Triassic/Permian.
An earlier well, drilled in 2007, proved gas and oil about 6.5km farther north, and this latest discovery is thought to form part of the same hydrocarbon system.
The discovery well was drilled from the jack-up drilling rig, West Epsilon, to a vertical depth of 2,324m (7,625ft) beneath the sea surface, in 109m (357ft) nominal of water.
Preliminary estimates put total recoverable gas resources in these two finds in the range 106-353billion cu ft.
StatoilHydro says more detailed studies of collected well data will be needed to evaluate the resources and determine further activity around the discovery.
StatoilHydro is the operator of block 16/2 with 40% interest, in partnership with Petoro (30%), DNO (20%) and Talisman (10%).