Equinor Energy’s wildcat well 31/2-24 near Troll field turns out to be dry

Equinor Energy has failed to find any hydrocarbons following the drilling of wildcat well 31/2-24, located approximately 3km west of the Troll field in the Norwegian North Sea.

Well 31/2-24, drilled about 115km northwest of Bergen, targeted to prove petroleum existence in Upper and Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks, specifically in the Sognefjord Formation in the Viking Group, and the Tarbert, Ness, and Etive formations in the Brent Group.

A secondary objective was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks in the Fensfjord Formation in the Viking Group and Oseberg Formation in the Brent Group.

Well 31/2-24 drilled into the Sognefjord and Fensfjord formations in the Viking Group, spanning a total thickness of 514m, including 197m of sandstone reservoir of moderate to good quality. Further encounters in the Brent Group included the Tarbert, Ness, Etive, and Oseberg formations.

The Tarbert, Ness, and Etive formations spanned approximately 106m, with 41m of sandstone reservoir of variable quality. The Oseberg Formation was about 31m thick, with 25m of moderate to good quality sandstone reservoir.

Data acquisition was undertaken and the well turned out to be dry. The well is the sixth exploration effort in production licence 923, awarded in APA 2017.

The wildcat well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,558m below sea level and concluded in the Drake Formation in Lower Jurassic. The drilling site, situated at a water depth of 330m, has now been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The drilling rig, Deepsea Stavanger, is set to proceed next to wildcat well 30/11-15 in production licence 035 in the North Sea.