Aberdeen-based Faroe Petroleum, the independent oil and gas company, announced an oil and gas discovery at the Njord North Flank in the Norwegian Sea, in which Faroe has a 7.5% stake.

Faroe said the NF-2 exploration well was drilled to a depth of 4,105 metres below sea level.

“The well encountered 102 metres of gross oil-bearing reservoir in middle and lower jurassic sandstones of the Ile and 157 metres of a gross gas condensate-bearing column in lower jurassic sandstones in the Tilje formation,” said Faroe.

Based on these results, the partnership decided to drill a side-track well to test a fault-block lying to the east which was drilled to a depth of 4,127 metres below sea level.

“The well encountered 195 metres of gross gas-bearing column in the Tilje Formation,” said Faroe.

“In addition 140 metres of gross gas-bearing column were encountered in lower jurassic sandstones in the Åre Formation. No hydrocarbons were encountered in the Ile Formation in NF3.”

Neither well was drill stem tested but extensive data acquisition and sampling has been performed on both wells.

“Based on the data acquired, a preliminary estimate of the size of the NF-2 discovery is between 1.3 and 18.9 million barrels of oil equivalent for NF-2 and between 0.6 and 9.4 million barrels of oil equivalent for side-track NF-3,” said Faroe.

“Collectively these discoveries are equivalent to a range of 1.9 million barrels of oil equivalent to 28.3 million barrels of oil equivalent (0.14 million barrels of oil equivalent to 2.1 million barrels of oil equivalent net to Faroe). These results are in line with pre-drill estimates.”

The well has now been plugged and abandoned as planned and the partners will start work on assessing the commercial potential of the discovery.

“We are pleased to announce this oil and gas discovery on the Njord North Flank, Faroe’s second discovery of the year, following our significant Brasse oil and gas find announced in summer, which is also located very close to infrastructure,” said Faroe’s chief executive Graham Stewart.

“This new Greater Njord Area discovery builds on Faroe’s already significant position in this core area of the Norwegian Sea and has the potential to add further value and reserves to the Njord Future Project, which is scheduled to commence in early 2017.

“The North Flank discovery has also benefited from low rig rates and hence drilling costs, which, coupled with the Norwegian exploration tax rebate, has ensured Faroe’s cost exposure was very low and maintains our low finding costs.

“We look forward to Faroe’s continuing exploration programme; next up is the high impact exploration well on the Dazzler prospect (Faroe 20%) located in the Barents Sea.

“Dazzler will be operated by Eni and is scheduled to spud around year end.”