Well 7220/7-CD-1H was drilled by the Transocean Enabler drilling rig. (Photo: Transocean)

Equinor and its partners have made an oil discovery in the "Drivis Tubåen" prospect.

The well was drilled about 12 kilometres southwest of discovery well 7220/8-1 on the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea and 210 kilometres northwest of Hammerfest.

Preliminary calculations indicate the size of the discovery is between 1.5 and 2.3 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent. This corresponds to between 9.4 and 14.5 million barrels. The licensees will assess the discovery with a view toward a possible tie-in to the Johan Castberg field.

This is the 14th exploration well in production licence 532, which was awarded in the 20th licensing round in 2009.

Well 7220/7-CD-1H was drilled by the Transocean Enabler drilling rig.

Geological information

The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks from the Early Jurassic in the Tubåen Formation. In 2014, well 7220/7-3 S (Drivis) proved oil and gas in the Stø and Nordmela formations, and encountered the Tubåen Formation below the presumed hydrocarbon/water contact.

Well 7220/7-CD-1H encountered a 52-metre oil column in sandstone in the Tubåen Formation totalling 139 metres with good and very good reservoir quality. The oil/water contact was encountered 1663 metres below sea level.

The well was drilled to a vertical depth of  1769  metres below sea level, and was terminated in the Fruholmen Formation from the Late Triassic. Water depth at the site is 345 metres. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned, before the rig will continue drilling the second wellbore (development well – gas injector on Drivis) in the multilateral well (MLT).

The well was not formation-tested, but data and samples were collected.

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