Deepsea Bergen drills Grimsnes discovery offshore Norway
Equinor and its partners discovered oil and gas at the Grimsnes prospect in the Oseberg area of the North Sea, about 140 km west of Bergen, Norway. Well 30/8-7 S, drilled by Odfjell Drilling’s Deepsea Bergen semisubmersible in 96 m of water, was the fifth exploration well in production license 190. Preliminary estimates put the discovery at 3-8 million standard cu m of oil equivalent, or 19-50 million boe.
The well hit a combined oil and gas column of 54 m in the Middle Jurassic Tarbert Formation, made up of a 39 m gas column and a 15 m oil column. The Tarbert measured 264 m in total thickness, including 111 m of sandstone with moderate to good reservoir properties. The secondary targets in the Ness and Etive formations held aquiferous sandstones, though the Ness showed a few potential hydrocarbon-filled zones. The well reached a vertical depth of 3,752 m below sea level, finished in the Lower Jurassic Drake Formation and was plugged and abandoned.
Licensees Equinor (operator), Petoro and TotalEnergies are studying options to tie the discovery back to existing Oseberg-area infrastructure. The license also contains the Tune field and lies near the Oseberg Sør field, both operated by Equinor. The Deepsea Bergen will now move to the Visund Sør field to drill a development well.
