ConocoPhillips hits dry well in PL 917 near Balder field in North Sea

ConocoPhillips Skandinavia could not find any hydrocarbons through the drilling of wildcat well 25/7-9 S in production licence 917 (PL 917), offshore Norway.

The ConocoPhillips subsidiary, which is the operator of production licence 917, drilled the exploratory well nearly 7km northwest of the Balder field in the central North Sea and 200km west of Stavanger.

According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the objective of the 25/7-9 S well was to prove the presence of petroleum in Eocene reservoir rocks (the Hordaland Group) by targeting the Hasselbaink prospect. The well intersected a couple of thin sandstone layers of roughly one metre in the Hordaland Group, with very good reservoir characteristics and traces of petroleum. The well has been classified as dry and has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The wildcat well 25/7-9 S was drilled by the Leiv Eiriksson drilling facility to a vertical depth of 1,899 metres below sea level and was terminated in the Sele Formation. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said that data has been collected in the exploratory well.

25/7-9 S is the second exploration well to be drilled in production licence 917, which was awarded in APA 2017. The depth of water at the site is 126 metres.

ConocoPhillips encounters dry well in PL 917 near Balder field in North Sea. Photo courtesy of Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.