Norwegian oil and gas operator DNO announced on June 22 that an appraisal well has further delineated the Carmen gas-condensate discovery in the Norwegian North Sea.
The 2023 discovery in licence PL1148 is now estimated by the company to hold between 21 million and 107 million barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable resources.
According to the operator, the bulk of the recoverable volumes was encountered in the Etive Formation, where reservoir quality ranges from moderate to poor. To enhance recovery from these sizeable in-place volumes, the licence partnership plans to evaluate hydraulic fracturing.
The partners are also considering further appraisal and exploration drilling, which may target the northern section of the laterally extensive Carmen structure.
DNO Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani noted, “Tight reservoirs can be unlocked by fracking, a technique that has opened vast new oil and gas plays in the United States, but which is largely untested offshore Norway.”
The licence partnership consists of DNO Norge, Equinor Energy and operator Wellesley Petroleum with 30 per cent interest each, alongside Aker BP with 10 per cent.
To leverage existing local infrastructure, these partners will assess opportunities to develop the discovery as a tie-back to the Kvitebjørn platform located 35 kilometres to the west.
DNO holds a 19 per cent interest in Kvitebjørn and recently acquired stakes in the nearby Atlantis and Afrodite discoveries, which represent respective interests of 19 per cent and 10 per cent.
In the week prior to the announcement, the drilling rig Deepsea Yantai relocated from the Carmen site to appraise Afrodite, which partners also view as a potential fracking candidate.
