A Successful Geophysical Prediction of Fractured Porous Basement Reservoir - Rolvsnes Oil Discovery 2015, Utsira High

The Southern Utsira High in the Norwegian North Sea was explored on and off for more than 40 years before Lundin Norway made the Edvard Grieg breakthrough discovery in 2007 (186 million bbls of recoverable oil). This discovery opened up for the giant Johan Sverdrup 16/2-6 discovery in 2010 (reserve range of 1,7-3,0 billion bbl of oil). Triassic to Cretaceous clastic sandstones are here the main reservoirs.

The most recent oil discovery on the Southern Utsira High was made by the 16/1-25 S, Rolvsnes, well. This well targeted and found oil in fractured porous granitic basement. In this paper, Lundin Norway will present this basement discovery and the geophysical methods used to distinguish between tight and fractured/porous basement which allowed for a successful placement of the Rolvsnes well.