The Northern Lights project partners Equinor, Shell and Total have completed the drilling of confirmation well south of the Troll field in the North Sea to determine the suitability of the reservoir for CO₂ storage.
Located some 2500 metres below the seabed, this is the first well drilled in exploitation licence 001. If the Northern Lights project is sanctioned, the well will be used for injection and storage of CO₂.
“This is an important milestone in realising the possibility of a CO₂ storage on the Norwegian continental shelf,” says Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s senior vice president for project development.
“The preliminary results from the well so far have been positive. The drilling results will now be further analysed before concluding,” says Tungesvik.
Extensive amounts of data have been acquired through coring, logging, sampling and a production test. So far, the partners have proven a sealing shale layer and the presence of good quality sandstone in the reservoir.
The results will now be analyzed as part of the final project’s decision process.
The partnership has decided that well data can be freely shared with external parties and the information will therefore be available for download. The solution is not yet decided.
The Northern Lights partners plan for a potential investment decision in the spring of 2020.