Predator states case for Ram Head subsea-shore project offshore Ireland

Offshore staff

JERSEY, UK – Predator Oil & Gas Holdings has issued a prospective resources update and conceptual development plan for the Ram Head gas field offshore southern Ireland.

The company operates surrounding licensing option 16/30, in partnership with Theseus.

Logs indicate gas over a 270 ft (82 m) gross Middle and Upper Jurassic interval in discovery well 49/19-1, drilled by Marathon in 1984/5, with about 80 ft (24 m) of potentially productive sand.

The potential gross gas column could be 400 ft (122 m), but this was not tested at the time as Marathon’s Kinsale gas field fully met Irish gas needs and there were no interconnector systems for exports to the UK.

Esso’s well 49/14-3, 28 km (17.4 mi) to the northeast, drilled into similar targets, had sands with gas shows with porosities up to 13% at 11,300 ft (3,444 m).

New, independently validated reservoir quality data led to commissioning of a conceptual development study for Ram Head, which assessed reservoir performance, gas well hydraulic performance, the hydraulics requirement of a pipeline to the nearest platform, and potential gas compression needs.

Results suggest the field can be developed with a minimum of 10 vertical wells completed in three gas zones, with production most likely via depletion drive, with technically 1,834 bcf thought to be producible at rates of up to 400 MMcf/d.

Reservoir pressure appears to be sufficient to deliver gas to the Kinsale platform at 35 psia in which case gas compression would not be necessary.

A separate study on re-entering and testing three gas-bearing zones in the Middle and Upper Jurassic in the 49/19-1 well has shown that it is technically feasible, at a cost of $20.2 million.

This would improve definition of expected flow rates and therefore resources, along with the potential for depletion and reservoir compartmentalization.

PSE Kinsale (owned by Petronas) is proceeding with decommissioning plans for the Kinsale platform. All offshore facilities will likely be removed, and the Inch terminal returned to agricultural use, although the application will likely request that the 55-km (34-mi) 24-in. offshore pipeline connecting the Kinsale field to shore is left in situ.

If the terminal is not decommissioned, Predator has a plan to connect the 10 new development wells via 4-in. flowlines to a subsea manifold, in turn linked by a 40-km (25-mi) 24-in. pipeline either to the end of the existing offshore pipeline, or a new 75-km (46.6-mi) 20-in. pipeline terminating at the current landfall at Inch.

05/10/2019