Tullow North Sea Well Comes Up Dry

The Lupus exploration well (31/10-1) on production license 507 in the Norwegian North Sea failed to find hydrocarbons, license operator Tullow Oil reported Monday. The well, which was the first well on PL507, will now be plugged and abandoned, the company reported.

The primary objective of the Lupus-1 wildcat well, which was located some 20 miles southeast of the Oseberg Sør field, was to find hydrocarbons in the Paleocene Hermod Formation in a stratigraphic trap, with a secondary objective to target reservoir-quality sandstones in the Paleocene Ty Formation of the Rogaland Group. The well found good-quality sandstones in the Paleocene Hermod but no hydrocarbons were encountered and no sandstones were found in the Paleocene Ty Formation.

The well was drilled by the Borgland Dolphin (mid-water semisub) rig. Tullow holds a 60-percent interest in PL507, with Explore Petroleum, Ithaca Energy and North Energy holding 20 percent, 10 percent and 10 percent respectively.