Offshore staff
LONDON – Azinor Catalyst has contracted the Diamond Offshore Drilling (UK) semisubmersible Ocean Guardianfor two wells in the UK North Sea this summer.
The first on thePartridge prospect should take around 25 days to drill. Partridge’s relatively shallow and normally pressured reservoir is in the Jura sub-basin of the Outer Moray Firth off northeast Scotland.
Catalyst estimates pre-drill recoverable volumes in the range of 119-260 MMboe.
The prospect is a large, structurally controlled stratigraphic trap comprising deepwater mass flow sands of the Lower Cretaceous Scapa Sandstone Member, and has an associated direct hydrocarbon indicator.
This seismic signature is said to be directly analogous to one observed in the Lower Cretaceous sands at the nearby producing Scapa and Claymore fields.
The rig will then drill an appraisal well on the company’s 2014 Agar discovery and a side track to test the Plantain prospect in blocks 9/9d and 9/14a.
Agar’s 9/14a-15A discovery well encountered a 33-ft (10-m) oil-down-to column in good quality Eocene Frigg Formation sands.
Catalyst estimates the combined potential of the two structures in the range of 60-98 MMboe.
Both are in the South Viking Graben of the UK central North Sea, roughly12 km (7.5 mi) east of Apache’s Beryl field and 14 km (8.7 mi) west ofAker BP’s Alvheim hub on the Norwegian side.
Drilling of Agar/Plantain should take around 35 days to complete.
Henry Morris, Catalyst’s technical director, said: “Both prospects and plays have huge potential which will be unlocked by these wells.
“The Agar/Plantain Eocene age reservoir is proven to be working directly over the median line in Norway for Aker BP at Volund. Agar and Plantain share the same seismic characteristics as Volund and look bigger.
“We tagged the updip end of Agar in 2014, proving the trap works and that the supporting seismic anomaly is hydrocarbon bearing.”
05/05/2017
