Wintershall in minor North Sea discovery

Wintershall made a minor oil discovery in the North Sea, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) confirmed today.

The German operator is currently completing the drilling of four exploration wells in its 248 F production licence, located about 5 km southeast of the North Sea’s Vega field.
One of these four wells encountered a 33-m oil column in intra Heather formation sandstone, of which 19 m were of good reservoir quality.
Wintershall planned to reach the Brent group and the Cook formation with this well, but could not because of technical difficulties.
Another well was drilled to further delineate the discovery. This second well encountered a total oil column of 46 m in the same formation, of which 29 m were of moderate reservoir quality. Another 19-m oil column was encountered in the Tarbet formation in the Brent group, of which 10 m were of moderate reservoir quality.
The Cook formation showed predominantly poor reservoir quality and few traces of petroleum.
Preliminary studies estimate the discovery between 1.5-4.5 mcm (53-159 mcf) of recoverable oil equivalents. Wintershall will now analyse this find as well as nearby discoveries to evaluate the potential of a commercial development.