Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – Centrica plans to drill two additional exploration wells late this year on the Butch oil discovery in the Norwegian North Sea, according to partner Faroe Petroleum.
Thediscovery well found light oil early last year on the northwest side of a large salt structure, in 66 m (216 ft) water depth, and close to the producing Ula and Gyda fields. Centrica is working on a development plan.
The wells will be drilled on the untested southwestern and eastern sides of the same large salt structure. Well planning is being performed in parallel with development planning to allow the latter to be fasttracked, whatever results the two wells deliver.
Faroe is a partner in two large exploration licenses in the Barents Sea between the Total-operatedNorvarg gas discovery to the east, and Statoil’s Skrugard and Havis oil fields to the west.
On the Samson Dome license, the partners are interpreting a new 3D seismic dataset. They are also processing data from another large 3D survey acquired over the Kvalross license – in both cases, drilling decisions are pending.
Finally, Faroe operates a concession containingGrouse on the UK Atlantic Margin, west of Shetland. This is a large structural prospect with a seismic anomaly that indicates the potential for light hydrocarbons.
The location is on the northern part of the Corona Ridge in post-basalt Eocene layers. An electromagnetic survey was acquired over Grouse last summer and final evaluation is in hand, again ahead of a drilling commitment decision.
3/26/2013
