Wellesley proves up Carmen gas/condensate discovery near Troll in Norwegian North Sea
Wellesley Petroleum and its partners confirmed a gas/condensate discovery in the Norwegian North Sea, following completion of appraisal well 35/10-16 S drilled by the Deepsea Yantai semisubmersible, operated by Odfjell Drilling.
The well, the third drilled in production license 1148, appraised the Carmen discovery, first encountered in wells 35/10-10 S and 35/10-10 A in 2023. It is located approximately 25 km northwest of the Troll field and 35 km east of the Kvitebjørn field, in 365 m of water.
The well encountered gas/condensate columns in the Ness, Etive and Oseberg formations of the Brent Group from the Middle Jurassic, as well as the Cook Formation from the Early Jurassic. In the Ness Formation, a 14.6-m gas/condensate column was encountered in reservoir rocks of poor to very good quality.
The Etive Formation yielded a 41.3-m gas/condensate column with poor to moderate reservoir quality, while the Oseberg Formation encountered a 5-m column with a gas/water contact at 3,966 m below sea level. The Cook Formation returned poor to moderate reservoir properties with hydrocarbon shows only.
Preliminary estimates place recoverable resources at 3.4–17 million standard cu m of oil equivalent, corresponding to 21 to 107 million BOE. The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 4,153 m below sea level and has been permanently plugged and abandoned.
Wellesley Petroleum (operator), DNO, Equinor and Aker BP will now evaluate tie-back options to existing infrastructure in the area. Additional wildcat drilling may also follow.
The Deepsea Yantai will next drill appraisal well 35/7-2 on the Afrodite discovery in production license 293.
