The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate reported Thursday that Statoil has made a small oil discovery near its Norne field in the Norwegian Sea.
Statoil is in the process of completing drilling of the wildcat well 6507/3-10 on production license 159C, where it is the operator. The well is approximately 7.5 miles south of the Norne field.
The purpose of the well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks of the Middle and Early Jurassic Age. The well found a net oil column amounting to around 32 feet in the Middle Jurassic, while oil was also encountered in a six-to-10-foot thin sand layer.
A preliminary estimate of the size of the discovery is less than 6.3 million barrels of oil. The discovery's commerciality is yet to be assessed.
This is the first exploration well on PL159C. It was drilled by the Song Trym (mid-water semisub) rig, which will now move to PL128 in the Norwegian Sea where it will drill wildcat well 6608/10-15.
