Eni Discovers Oil And Gas Reserves In PL869 In North Sea

Eni SpA (NYSE:E) through VarEnergi AS has discovered oil and gas in production license 869 in the North Sea.

The discovery was made by drilling the exploration well 24/9-14S and a horizontal appraisal well 24/9-14A in the Froskelar Main prospect. VarEnergi is jointly owned by Eni and HitecVision, each holding 69.6% and 30.4%, respectively. Aker BP (LON:BP) ASA, as the operator of PL 869, has a stake of 60%. The other partners VarEnergi and Lundin Norway AS hold 20% each, respectively.

Located about 4 kilometers northwest of the Boyla Field and 225 kilometer west of Stavanger, the wells are located in a water depth of 120 meters. The semisubmersible drilling rig Scarabeo 8 was used to drill the wells.

The exploration well 24/9-14S was drilled to a vertical depth of 2097 meter below sea level in the Paleocene Sele Formation. A hydrocarbon column of 68 meters and an oil zone of 38 meters were established in the main bore.

Numerous oil and gas prone sandstone layers were encountered that were inferred as injectites within the Hordaland Group. These layers possess excellent reservoir properties. The horizontal geological side-track 24/9-14A confirmed the oil-water contact. It reached a vertical and measured depth of 1847 meters and 4432 meters, respectively. It encountered a total interval of 540 meters with reservoir sandstones of superior quality and variable thickness.

Subsequent to extensive data acquisition and sampling, the wells have been permanently plugged and abandoned. Per the initial estimates, the discovery is anticipated to hold recoverable oil equivalent resources between 63 and 132 thousand barrel. A part of the discovery, which can be linked to nearby existing infrastructure in the Alvheim area, may overlap toward the U.K. territory.

Eni won PL 869 in Awards in Pre-Defined Areas 2016 and surrounds the PL 340 (where VarEnergi holds 20%) that contains the Boyla Field and the discovery made in 2018 — Frosk. The result of Froskelar Main represents double the resources from the Frosk discovery.

Recently, Eni revealed its strategic plan. Per the strategy, the company is targeting a net zero direct emissions in the upstream business by 2030. Several other companies are working on reducing emissions including BP plc (NYSE:BP) , ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) and TOTAL SA (NYSE:TOT) .

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