GDF SUEZ sets HPHT drilling record with new North Sea discovery
GDF SUEZ E&P Nederland B.V. is pleased to announce that its L5-12 exploration well drilled on the Sierra prospect in the Dutch sector of the North Sea tested positively from the Lower Slochteren reservoir at 1.2 million cubic meters of gas per day.
The L5-12 well was spud with the Noble jack-up drilling rig Ronald Hoope earlier this year and has reached a total depth of 5,450 m. The recorded static reservoir pressure of 1,023 bar and reservoir temperature of 183 degrees C are believed to be the highest ever encountered in the Netherlands. The successful drilling and testing of the high pressure - high temperature L5-12 well further underlines GDF SUEZ’ ability and competence to safely and responsibly execute such a challenging well.
Further technical work is ongoing to assess the size of the Sierra discovery. It is expected that the range of reserves is sufficient to warrant development, with export via the existing GDF SUEZ operated L5-FA platform and the NOGAT pipeline system as the logical evacuation route.
GDF SUEZ believes that this discovery may open a new play in an area of the Dutch Continental Shelf where the traditional Permian reservoirs are buried at a lower than usual depth.
Partners in the L5a production licence are GDF SUEZ E&P Nederland B.V. (60% and operator) and the Dutch state represented by Energie Beheer Nederland B.V. (40%).
09/02/2010