32/4-1

General

Wildcat well 32/4-1 was the first well drilled in Production Licence 205. It is located on the Horda Platform in the Northern North Sea about five kilometers east of the East Troll Gas Field. The primary objective of the well was to prove commercial reserves within the Upper Jurassic Sognefjord Formation sand reservoirs. The Alpha prospect was believed to be filled with oil spilled from the Troll Field. Secondary objectives were present in potential stacked Upper, Middle and Lower Jurassic sand reservoirs, in Triassic, and in possible Paleozoic sand reservoirs.

Operations and results

Well 32/4-1 was spudded 21 October 1996, using the semi-submersible drilling rig "Transocean 8". The first attempt to drill the well failed after experiencing problems when running the 13 3/8" casing. The casing unscrewed and parted at 619 m. The hole was filled with cement and abandoned. The rig was moved about 50 m to the north and the well was respudded. The well was drilled without major drilling problems, except for some difficulties with getting the 9 5/8" casing hanger through the BOP stack and mud losses when drilling through the Viking Group. The well was drilled into Basement rocks at a total depth of 3186 m. The well was drilled with spud mud to 720 m and water based KCl/Drispac with glycol from 720 m to TD.

The Upper Jurassic reservoir interval was encountered 6 m shallower than prognosed and contained 65.5 m of water-wet Sognefjord sandstones. In addition, water wet sandstones of the secondary targets were present as the Fensfjord, Krossfjord, Cook, Statfjord and Lunde Formations.

Four cores were cut in the Upper Jurassic. The two first were cut in the Heather Formation silt- and sandstones, while core 3 and 4 were cut in sandstones of the Sognefjord Formation (1220-1235.5 m, 1232.5-1237.5 m, 1237.5-1256 m and 1257-1275 m, respectively). A FMT water sample was collected from 1359 m.

The well was permanently plugged and abandoned as a