Statoil said preliminary estimates show the Dagny/Ermintrude field development, should it go ahead, would involve 125-250 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
An exploration well on the Dougal prospect associated with the Dagny/Ermintrude discovery has been classified as dry. But another appraisal well on Dagny Central encountered a 30-meter-thick gas column in the same formation.
“These wells aimed to test the production properties of... the reservoir rocks and prove more reserves for Dagny/Ermintrude,” Svein Olav Hoeyland, who heads work on the development, said in a statement.
“Testing and data gathering have been in line with our plans, but it was disappointing that the well on Dougal in production license 303 failed to prove additional reserves.”
Statoil said both wells would provide “geological and technical reservoir data for the Dagny/Ermintrude project, which is in the conceptual development phase.”
Gas was proven in Dagny as early as the 1970s just north of the Sleipner West field in the center of Norway’s North Sea sector. Gas, condensate and oil were found on the Ermintrude prospect in 2007, while an appraisal well on Dagny in 2008 found an oil column under the gas.
With much of the oil already pumped out of core North sea oilfields, Statoil is keen to bring on stream smaller projects that could be tied into existing infrastructure, such as the Sleipner hub, to lower development costs.
