The Stavanger-based oil company Agora Oil & Gas AS (“Agora”) is pleased to announce that Wintershall Norge AS, as the operator of Norwegian production licence 418 (Agora 20%), is in the process of completing drilling of wildcat well 35/9-7 in the north-eastern Norwegian North Sea as an oil discovery.

The well drilled on the Skarfjell Prospect is located approximately 17 kilometers (km) southwest of the Gjøa Field between the Grosbeak Discovery in PL378 to the south and the Titan Discovery in PL420 to the north. The exploration target for the well was to prove hydrocarbons in upper Jurassic reservoir rocks.

The well found very good quality upper Jurassic reservoir sandstone containing light oil over a 168 meters (m) gross interval. No fluid contact was observed, and down dip appraisal is therefore required to establish the height of the oil column in the Skarfjell structure.  Due to ongoing rig schedule commitments the well was not tested but extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.

An estimated preliminary resource range is between 60 and 160 million barrels of recoverable oil. The discovery is likely to be commercial, and a new 3D seismic acquisition programme over the discovery is already underway. The licence group will now focus on integrating the well and seismic data in order to plan the required appraisal programme for the discovery. The 35/9-7 well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

The well was drilled by the Songa Delta drilling unit to a vertical depth of 2976m below the sea surface and terminated in the Middle Jurassic Brent Gp / Rannoch Fm. Water depth at the site is 368m.

The PL418 license group comprises Wintershall Norge ASA (35%, Operator), Bayerngas Norge AS (20%), Agora (20%), Edison International Norway Branch (15%) and RWE Dea Norge AS (10%).

Source: Agora Oil & Gas

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