Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – Centrica has had to terminate a side track well on its Butch South West prospect in the North Sea short of the exploration objective.
Following the Butch oil discovery and first side track appraisal, the partners opted to drill a second side-track early last month from the same surface location, using the Mærsk Guardian. This was designed to target additional oil volumes in a structure south of Butch within a new segment containing the same reservoir, in 66 m (216 ft) water depth.
However, according to partner Faroe Petroleum hole instability problems arose while drilling the section above the main reservoir. The partners decided to curtail the operation and re-enter the target at a later date via a lower-risk well closer to the prospect.
Butch is close to the producing fields Ula, Tambar, and Gyda. Faroe says there are other exploration prospects on the PL405 and PL405B licenses around the large Butch salt structure. Plans are under way to design a new appraisal and exploration campaign to test the potential, possibly later in 2012 pending rig availability.
Faroe is currently involved in another ongoing well offshore Norway on the T-Rex prospect. Its campaign this year includes wells on Kalvklumpen, Cooper, and Santana (all Norway), and on North Uist (west of Shetlands) in the UK sector.
Mærsk Guardian now heads to Norwegian license 450 to drill wildcat well 7/12-13 S for Det norske oljeselskap.
01/10/2012
