Offshore staff
LONDON – The Oil and Gas Authority has awarded Jersey Oil & Gas 100% interests and operatorship of three blocks in the Greater Buchan Area of the central North Sea, under the UK’s 31st Supplementary Offshore Licensing Round.
It includes the Buchan oil field and the J2 oil discovery (well 20/5a-10Y).
The acreage is adjacent to license P2170 (blocks 20/5b and 21/1d) containing the Verbier (J62-J64) oil discovery drilled by Equinor in 2017. JOG has an 18% stake in this concession.
According to the company, this new GBA acreage opens the potential to establish and operate a new major area development encompassing over 100 MMboe of discovered resources and over 300 MMboe of prospective resources.
Table 1: GBA blocks awarded to JOG with associated resource estimates.
(Source: JOG Management’s estimates based on OGA information, data acquired by JOG from Repsol Sinopec Resources UK Ltd. and independent work completed by Rockflow Resources on behalf of JOG.)
The company will now start work on a field development plan (FDP), subject to funding. The proposed new hub would involve redevelopment of the Buchan oil field, previously produced by BP and Repsol Sinopec Resources, and J2.
It could be expanded to tie in Verbier and other discovered or still-to-be-proven resources in the GBA, and could deliver first oil in 2024 under a phased scheme.
BP discovered Buchan the mid-1970s and production started in 1981, continuing until May 2017 when the Buchan Alpha platform no longer complied with the current Safety Case. By that point 148 MMbbl had been produced.
Buchan has light 33.5° API oil with a low gas-oil ratio of (285 cf/bbl), and an estimated 80 MMbbl-plus could still be produced, according to Jersey’s estimate.
In addition, the company has entered a three-month option agreement that would give Equinor a potential 50% interest in Buchan blocks 20/5d and 21/1a.
If the two parties take this up, JOG would serve as license operator for the blocks with Equinor reimbursing the company for its 50% share of costs related to the license applications.
07/22/2019
