6506/9-1

General

Well 6506/9‐1 was drilled to further evaluate the Victoria discovery. The discovery was proven by well 6506/6-1 in 2000 in Lower to Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks, and is located about 22 kilometres northwest of the Heidrun field in the Norwegian Sea.

The objective was to reduce uncertainties on fluid contacts, reservoir structure and reservoir quality, to prove well productivity and obtain reliable fluid samples from the Garn, Ile, Tilje and Åre reservoirs of Victoria.

Operations and results

Appraisal well 6506/9‐1 was spudded with the semi-submersible installation West Phoenix on 20 January 2009 and drilled to TD at 5664 m in the Early Jurassic Åre Formation. The well was drilled without significant problems, although wire line logging and sampling at TD was problematic due to high temperatures. The well was drilled with spud mud down to 1510 m, with NABM (non-aqueous based, or oil based mud) from 1510 to 5022 m, and with WARP (Weight Additive Research Project) NABM mud from 5022 m to TD.

All the reservoirs were drilled in the 8 1/2" section, and confirmed to be gas bearing. However, reservoirs characteristics were poor, except in a few metric layers. The Garn Formation (5212 to 5277 m) was composed of very tight sandstones with quartzite cement. Maximum gas shows were 2.2% total gas at 5232 m. In the Ile Formation the gas shows were quite constant along the whole formation with limited values due to the coring operations. Maximum values in porous layers were between 1.35 and 3.52 % tota