Neptune Energy has decided to drill a sidetrack well to further evaluate the size of its Dugong discovery located in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.

The Dugong well is located in licence PL882, which is operated by Neptune Energy with a 40 per cent interest with Petrolia NOCO, Concedo, and Idemitsu Petroleum each holding a 20 per cent interest.

Neptune confirmed it had discovered hydrocarbons at its Dugong well last Friday, 3 July.

Upon entering the reservoir, logs and cuttings identified hydrocarbons and a decision was made to initiate coring.

At the time, Neptune said that a contingent sidetrack might be drilled to further define the extent of the discovery.

In a short update on Friday, 10 July Petrolia said that the partners had decided to drill that sidetrack well to further evaluate the size of Dugong discovery.

Petrolia previously said that Dugong prospect contains prospective recoverable resources of 86 mmboe.

The Dugong well was drilled using the Deepsea Yantai semi-submersible rig, owned by CIMC and operated by Odfjell Drilling.

The well is located 158 kilometres west of Florø, Norway, at a water depth of 330 metres.

It is close to the existing production facilities of the Snorre field. The reservoir lies at a depth of 3,250 – 3,400 metres.