StatoilHydro makes oil find in Gygrid prospect

StatoilHydro made an oil discovery within Lower Jurassic and Middle Jurassic reservoirs in the Gygrid prospect in the southern Norwegian Sea.
After drilling both exploration- and appraisal wells, company officials estimated the discovery holds 20-30 mm bbl of recoverable oil. Neither well was formation tested, but extensive data and cores were gathered, StatoilHydro said.

These are the third and fourth wells on production license 348, where the water depth is 247 m. Both will be permanently plugged and abandoned.
Exploration well 6407/8-5 S was drilled to 2,347 m TVD subsea in the Lower Jurassic Are formation. The company is considering using existing facilities to extend the commercial life of Njord field, 23 km northeast of the discovery.

"Drilled as a sidetrack from the exploration well, the appraisal confirmed the oil column and delineated the discovery," said StatoilHydro. In the Middle Jurassic rocks, appraisal well 6407/8-5 A was drilled to 2,123 m TVD and terminated in the Lower Jurassic Tilje formation.
Rune Adolfsen, operations vice-president for Njord at StatoilHydro said, "Light and fine crude from Gygrid could be phased into Njord and extend the commercial life of a field now in its tail production phase."

Sivert Jorgenvag, head of infrastructure-led exploration on the Halten Bank at StatoilHydro, said, "It's interesting that we've found oil in the same area where we encountered gas last year in Galtvort." He said, "Results from these two finds will be used in our further work with the prospectivity of this license."
The wells were drilled by Seadrill's semisubmersible West Alpha, which will now be moved to production license 407 in the North Sea to drill appraisal well 17/12-4 for operator BG Norge.

StatoilHydro operates production license 348 with 30 % interest.
Its partners are GdF Suez E&P Norge with 20 %, Norwegian Energy with 17.5 %, E.ON Ruhrgas Norge with 17.5 %, Petoro with 7.5 %, Concedo with 5 %, and VNG Norge Operations with 2.5 %.