European oil exploration and production company Neptune Energy has announced the discovery of hydrocarbons at the Dugong well, which is located in the Norwegian part of the North Sea.
The well is located in the production licence 882. It is 158km west of Florø in Norway and located in a water depth of 330m. It is close to the Snorre field production facilities.
Neptune Energy operates and owns 40% in Dugong. Other partners include Concedo (20%), Petrolia NOCO (20%), and Idemitsu Petroleum (20%).
Once the well had entered the reservoir, logs and cuttings identified hydrocarbons and the partners have decided to initiate coring.
The reservoir lies at a subsurface depth of 3,250m to 3,400m. According to Neptune Energy, a contingent side track may follow to help define the extent of the discovery.
Dugong has been drilled by CIMC-owned new Deepsea Yantai semi-submersible rig, which is operated by Odfjell Drilling. Last month, Neptune Energy said that it was set to cut 400 jobs across nine countries to improve cash flow amid low oil prices. These redundancies represent nearly 21% of the company’s staff.
In the same month, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) granted Neptune Energy a drilling permit for two wildcat wells in the North Sea offshore Norway. In February, Neptune Energy produced first gas from the L5a-D4 well in the deepest producing gas field in the Dutch North Sea.
