Our Arctic Neighbors: Norwegian hopes for Barents discovery dashed

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has described as “disappointing” the result of the drilling of an appraisal well in the Obesum discovery in the Barents Sea by StatoilHydro. A wildcat well made an oil and gas discovery of unknown size early in 2008, in rocks of Middle Triassic age, about 109 miles north-northwest of Hammerfest. The appraisal well’s purpose was to delineate and determine the size of the discovery.

The well proved two smaller gas columns with medium reservoir quality in the shallower discovery and a poor quality reservoir in the deeper one, the directorate said in a release Jan. 12.

“No oil was found in the appraisal well, and thus the size of the oil component is considered minimal,” the release said. “Neither the oil nor the gas discovery in the shallower level is considered commercially interesting.”

—Sarah Hurst