OMV finishes Wisting Central II appraisal well
OMV has completed drilling and testing of the Wisting Central II appraisal well. The horizontal well was drilled in the Wisting discovery in the Barents Sea, approximately 310 km north of Hammerfest. Wisting is the northernmost oil discovery in Norway. Wisting Central II is the fifth well in the production license PL537, which was awarded in the 20th licensing round in 2009. The planning and execution of the well was done in cooperation with Schlumberger.
The Wisting Central II well is the first horizontal appraisal well in the Barents Sea and has set a drilling record: It is the shallowest horizontal offshore well drilled from a floating drilling unit, with the targeted reservoir just 250 m below seabed. The water depth at Wisting is 402 m.
The well started vertically and was steered into a horizontal orientation within a 250-m vertical depth interval. The well was landed horizontally with a 12 ¼-in. hole size. The total well length is 2,354 m, and the horizontal section measures 1,452 m. Advanced data collection and geosteering was conducted through the entire horizontal phase.
The well was spudded on 15 January 2016 by the Transocean Spitsbergen semi.
The well test, with 461 m net perforations at the toe of the horizontal section, was finalized at the end of March. The well has now been permanently plugged and abandoned.
The well objectives were to confirm the economic potential of the Wisting discovery by proving the presence of hydrocarbons in the two undrilled Wisting Central South and Central West segments and to prove the technical feasibility of long-reach horizontal wells in a very shallow reservoir, about 250 meters below the seabed. The drilling of such wells is needed to establish a viable development concept for the Wisting discovery. A well test for this very low-temperature and low-pressure reservoir was performed and flow rates reached over 5,000 boe/day.
The well results are expected to provide an increase of in-place volumes in the central south and central west segments. In addition, the results of this pioneering well also reduce the uncertainty for developing the field by extended horizontal wells and the achievable flow rates.
OMV is the operator and has a 25% stake in the PL537 license. Joint venture partners are Petoro (20%), Idemitsu (20%), Tullow (20%) and Statoil (15%).
