Barents Sea Eni Dry Well to be Plugged & Abandoned

The first deepwater well in western Barents Sea is to be permanently plugged and abandoned by operators Eni Norge A/S, having been found to be dry.

The well was drilled in the Barents Sea about 185 kilometres southwest of the Snøhvit field and 160 kilometres northwest of Tromsø to explore for petroleum in Eocene and Paleocene reservoir rocks (the Sotbakken Group) but did not encounter reservoir rocks and was declared to be dry.

The well is the first exploration well in production licence 529 with a licence awarded in the 20th licensing round.
It was drilled to a vertical depth of 4025 metres below the sea surface and was terminated in the Upper Palaeocene, at a water depth of 1366 metres.

The well was drilled by the Scarabeo 8 drilling facility, which will now proceed to production licence 229 in the Barents Sea to drill production wells on the Goliat field, where Eni Norge AS is the operator.