Exploration Strategy, Learnings and Key to Success
By Roy Davies, VP Exploration and Subsurface (Harbour Energy)
Dinner Menu:
Høstens soppsuppe med brød
Mushroom soup
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Helstekt okse med sesongens grønnsaker, ovnsbakte småpoteter, rødvin glace,
Fried sirloin
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Sjokolademousse
Chocolate mousse
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Abstract:
The past 5 – 10 years have seen a resurgence of exploration in mature areas of the Norwegian Shelf, with many companies adjusting their exploration efforts to refocus on “older” areas close to existing infrastructure. This shift in strategy has led to an up-tick in exploration success rates for several companies, as well as for the NCS on the whole. Development of discoveries in mature areas will help to extend the lifetime of existing fields and as well as reducing emissions intensity.
Following disappointing drilling campaigns in the Vøring Basin and Barents Sea in 2016 – 2020, Wintershall Dea intensified its infrastructure-led exploration (ILX) efforts in mature parts of the Norwegian Shelf. This change in focus yielded a significant improvement in technical and commercial success rates, with 18 discoveries in the past 26 ILX wells. Furthermore, the Bergknapp and Dvalin North discoveries have shown the potential for significant discoveries (>50 mmboe recoverable) in mature areas. One common feature of these discoveries is that they both comprised multiple reservoir targets drilled with the same exploration wellbore and/or side-track.
The Dvalin North exploration well, drilled in May 2021, proved an 85 m gas column in the Middle Jurassic Garn Formation, but also encountered significant gas/condensate and oil columns in the Upper Cretaceous Lysing and Lange Formations. The PL211 partnership was able to pass the DG3 (FID) milestone just eighteen months after the completion of the exploration well by building on knowledge gained from the nearby Dvalin development and utilising synergies between the two licenses. The PDO for the Dvalin North field was approved in 2023, and the development project is now in the execution phase. The shallower Adriana and Lysing discoveries are both due to be appraised in 2024, and may eventually result in an additional development project.
Similarly, the Bergknapp discovery well drilled in 2020 and subsequent re-entry and side-track in 2021 proved significant resources in Middle to Late Jurassic sandstone reservoirs. However, due to the high degree of complexity associated with oil and gas accumulations in four different formations, the PL836S partnership decided to return to drill an appraisal well on the discovery in late 2023 in order to gather additional data prior to commencement of a development project. The different approaches taken in these licenses demonstrates the need to recognise subsurface complexity prior to initiating development planning for nearfield discoveries, even in mature areas.
Success factors for exploring in mature areas include access to modern 3D seismic, as well as utilisation of advanced processing technologies in order to image deeper reservoirs and structurally complex areas that have been overlooked in previous exploration campaigns. Furthermore, closer integration between subsurface teams working on producing assets and exploration licenses may also lead to new insights into exploration potential that would otherwise have been missed.
Biography:
Roy Davies is currently VP Exploration and Subsurface for Harbour Energy, and has been part of the Senior Management Team of Wintershall Dea in Norway since the merger in 2019. He has 20 years of industry experience from Wintershall Dea, DEA, E.ON, Rocksource and Schlumberger and holds a Bachelors degree and a PhD in Geology from the University of Liverpool in the UK.
