OMV drills dry well northeast of Johan Castberg

OMV drills dry well northeast of Johan Castberg

STAVANGER, Norway -- OMV (Norway) AS, operator of production licence 537, is in the process of completing the drilling of wildcat well 7324/7-1 S. The well has been drilled about five km northwest of the oil discovery 7324/8-1 (Wisting Central) and about 170 km northeast of the gas/oil discovery 7220/8-1 Johan Castberg.

The well's primary exploration target was to prove petroleum in Middle Triassic reservoir rocks (the Kobbe formation). The secondary exploration target was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Middle to Late Triassic (the Snadd formation).

Reservoir rocks were encountered in the Kobbe and Snadd formations, but with poorer than expected reservoir properties. The well was classified as dry, with traces of petroleum. Data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.

This is the second exploration well in production licence 537. The production licence was awarded in the 20th licensing round in 2009.

The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,454 m below the sea surface and was terminated in the Kobbe formation in rocks from the Middle Triassic age. Sea depth is 413 m. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Well 7324/7-1 was drilled with the Leiv Eiriksson drilling facility, which will now proceed to production licence 040 in the North Sea to drill well 30/40-D, where Total E&P Norge AS is the operator.