Oil and gas discovery near the Fram field in the North Sea – 35/10-9

The well was drilled 10 kilometres northwest of the Fram field and about 140 kilometres northwest of Bergen.

The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks in the Hordaland Group from the Paleogene.

Well 35/10-9 encountered a 6-metre gas column over an oil column of around 8 meters in the Hordaland Group in sandstone layers totalling 14 metres, with moderate reservoir properties.

The gas/oil contact was encountered at 1557 metres below sea level. The oil/water contact was not encountered.

Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 3.8 and 13.3 million Sm3 recoverable oil equivalent.

The licensees will consider delineation of the discovery and tie-in to existing infrastructure in the area.

The well was not formation-tested, but extensive data acquisition and sampling have been carried out.

This is the second exploration well in production licence 827S. The licence was awarded in APA 2015.

Well 35/10-9 was drilled to a vertical depth of 1794 metres below sea level. The well was terminated in the Rogaland Group from the Palaeocene. Water depth at the site is 368 metres. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The well was drilled by the Deepsea Stavanger drilling facility, which will now drill wildcat well 6406/5-2 in production licence 255B in the Norwegian Sea, where Equinor is the operator.