OMV discovers oil near Oselvar field in Norwegian North Sea

OMV (Norge), the Norwegian arm of Austrian company OMV, and its partners have made oil discovery about 6km south of the Oselvar field in the southern North Sea.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said the discovery has been made in the wildcat well 1/3-13, which is located in production licence 970.

Located near the Ipswich oil discovery and 300km south-west of Stavanger, well 1/3-13 was drilled using the Maersk Integrator drilling facility.

Following drilling about 100m into water-bearing chalk in the Tor Formation, the well encountered ‘good to very good porosity’, but low permeability, the company said.

Additionally, the well encountered petroleum-bearing layer, which is 3m thick in the Ekofisk Formation from the Palaeocene which is believed to be residual oil.

At the well, the partners also identified oil in an 8m thick layer of sandstone in the Forties Formation and a 3m of sandstone in the Andrew Formation with no proven oil/water contact.

These two sandstones, which are both from the Palaeocene Age, are of ‘moderate to very good reservoir quality’.

The partners plan to undertake more detailed studies to assess the potential connection between the proven resources in the Forties and Andrew Formations in 1/3-13 and the 1/3-11 (Ipswich) oil discovery.

Terminated in the upper part of the Tor Formation, the well 1/3-13 has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

OMV is the operator of the production license 970 with a 60% stake while other partners include Petoro and Neptune Energy, with each holding 20% interest.

The Maersk Integrator drilling facility will now drill development well 16/1-D-13 on the Aker BP-operated Ivar Aasen field in the North Sea.

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