Noreco Makes Modest Oil Find in North Sea

Noreco has made a small oil discovery on exploratory well 17/6-1 on the Svaneogle prospect in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks.

The well did encounter oil in a 16-foot (five-meter) thick sandstone layer with low reservoir quality in the Sandnes formation, and pressure measurements have indicated a possible oil column of 148 feet (45 meters). The underlying Bryne formation was water-bearing, with good reservoir quality.

The well was not formation tested, but data acquisition was performed. The operator states the find is not commercially interesting. The well, drilled to a vertical depth of 10,056 feet (3,065 meters), terminated in the Skagerrak formation. The West Alpha semisub drilled the well in a water depth of 892 feet (272 meters). Plugging and abandonment operations will now commence.