Exploring the Norwegian Channel - The Peon Discovery

Trude Kristing and Espen S. Andersen
Norsk Hydro, N/A, Norway

Early fall 2005 the exploration well 35/2-1 was successfully finalized and the Peon discovery was announced. The shallow gas-filled reservoir is located less than 200 m below mudline, within the Pleistocene age interval. This discovery opened a new play type within the mature basins of the Norwegian Continental Shelf. An unlikely story of shallow gas hazard made commercial interesting, however with significant drilling challenges.
The Peon structure is located offshore Norway, within the prominent morphological trough-feature called the Norwegian Channel. The feature is a result of ice-stream activity, indicated by several glacial erosion surfaces and the North Sea Trough-mouth Fan, which is mainly a result of deposition of glacial-fed debris flows
The exploration and prospect evaluation within this region includes interpretation of high-resolution 2D reflection seismic, 3D seismic and EM data. The structures are generally subtle, hence sensitive to depth conversion. Consequently several methods for the prognosis of the velocities have been applied to increase the confidence regarding hydrocarbon column and pore pressure prediction. In addition the underlying tilted strata can to some extent include isolated sand filled clinoforms. Whether these features add to the total HC column is important knowledge and a potential danger for uncontrolled gas-migration. Hence a thorough risk assessment is important for the total evaluation
The presentation given is focusing on the possibility of shallow gas occurrence within the young strata offshore Norway. The depositional model given indicates potentially good reservoir within the sub-glacial deposits of the Norwegian Trough

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90072 © 2007 AAPG and AAPG European Region Conference, Athens, Greece