StatoilHydro has struck arctic gas in the Barents Sea with an exploration well norrtheast of the Snoehvit field, the first offshore gas project in the Arctic.

Under pressure to find enough gas for a Snoehvit Train II, company exploration experts will breath a sigh of relief with well 7222/11-1, although the field is still 80 kilometres northeast of Snoehvit, itself already 60 kilometres from landfall at Melkøya near Hammerfest in northern Norway.

The new well showed up to 14 billion cubic metres of gas in the Caurus prospect’s reservoir rock of the Late Triassic era. A communique from Norwegian officials sounded some warning.

“The discovery made in the Middle Triassic was, however, of poor reservoir quality and together with a complicated structure, it is too early to estimate the size of the discovery

The 1997 license award was drilled into some 2,825 metres in the 300-plus depths of the near-Barents.

The gas’s finder — Transocean semi-submersible Polar Pioneer — will now drill appraisal well 7125/4-2, another StatoilHydro mission.

Tags: StatoilHydro