Tullow Opdates on Norway Appraisal Well

Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) announces that the Wisting Central II long reach horizontal well (7324/7-3S) has successfully explored and appraised the Wisting South & Wisting West segments of the field including a production test in the Stø formation. The well was drilled approximately 5 kilometres south-west of the Wisting discovery well in the Barents Sea.

Results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids show that the well has encountered an oil column of 22 metres in a 1,402 metres horizontal section with 1,250 metres of net light oil pay. The main reservoir encountered was thicker than expected pre-drill. A constrained production test was carried out in the Stø Formation with a flow rate of approximately 5,000 boepd which demonstrated excellent reservoir properties. The well results are expected to provide an increase of in-place volumes in the Central South and Central West segments and further reduce the overall uncertainty of resources in PL537.

The well was drilled by the semi submersible drilling rig Transocean (RIG) Spitsbergen. The well was drilled to respective vertical and measured depths of 673 and 2,314 metres in a water depth of 402 metres. The Wisting Central Complex is located in PL537 in which Tullow has a 20% interest. OMV Norge are the operator with a 25% interest whilst Idemitsu (20%), Statoil (STO) (15%) and Petoro (20%) are also partners.

Angus McCoss, Exploration Director, commented today, “This is a very successful appraisal and flow test of Wisting Central. While we are still assessing the positive volume impact across our significant cluster of discoveries in this area, it is clear that having encountered more light oil in excellent reservoirs, with very strong flow rates, this asset clearly offers valuable development potential.”