AKER BP DRILLED NORWAY’S LONGEST EVER EXPLORATION WELL

When the Øst Frigg Beta/Epsilon wildcat well reached its target depth, the team had drilled 8168 metres. As it made its way horizontally through the reservoir, the value of Yggdrasil increased metre by metre ? in what is Norway’s longest ever exploration well. Aker BP first reported the discovery on Thursday, 25 May. At that point, the drilling was nearly complete, and it was clear that the company had made a significant oil discovery
Preliminary calculations of the Øst Frigg Beta/Epsilon discovery show 53-90 million recoverable barrels of oil equivalents (link to the NPD notice). The overall resources in the Yggdrasil area have increased to more than 700 million barrels.
Øst Frigg consists of two structures, Alpha and Beta. This is a gas discovery from the 1970s with ten metres of oil under the gas. The gas was produced in the 1980s and 1990s by Elf, while the oil remained untouched.
The Øst-Frigg Beta/Epsilon wildcat well has a vertical main track and three horizontal sidetracks. The Scarabeo 8 rig started drilling in april. The first sidetracks were drilled in the Beta structure to prove oil and appraise the discovery. The sidetrack to Epsilon was the last one.
Most of the Beta well was used to reach the Epsilon structure. The last casing was landed in the reservoir and drilling of the horizontal section towards Epsilon started. The results were promising, and the drilling continued towards the Gamma structure. Over a period of two weeks, the team drilled more than 6000 metres, openhole and horizontally, in the reservoir to collect geological data.
Øst Frigg is a field in the central part of the North Sea, four kilometres east of the Frigg field. The water depth is 100 metres. Øst Frigg was discovered in 1973, and the plan for development and operation (PDO) was approved in 1984. The field was developed with two subsea templates and a central manifold station tied to the Frigg field. Production started in 1988. Production was shut down in 1997 and the subsea templates were removed in 2001
(Source and image: Aker BP/NPD – Scarabeo 8 crew)