Offshore staff
LONDON – Borders & Southern (B&S) has had to put its next planned phase of exploration in the offshore South Falkland basin on hold.
The company had hoped to have secured partners and funding for a new exploration and appraisal drilling program but has been thwarted by theoil price.
Although its current production license period extends through end of October 2017, it has applied to theFalkland Islands government for an extension.
Sub-surface studies continue. Last year B&S upgraded recoverable resources from theDarwin East and West discovery to 360 MMbbl of condensate.
The current focus is on the early Cretaceous shallow marine sandstone play fairway, re-mapping the discovery and analyzing the seismic response on near-field prospects with a view to developing reliable predictive models for hydrocarbon presence and phase.
Additionally, the company has re-assessed its basin models, incorporating results from recent drilling activity in the area by other operators.
It is also considering how a Darwin development would fit in a period of sustained low oil prices. A previous scenario involved two to three appraisal wells and 10 development wells (six producers and four gas re-injectors) tied back subsea to an FPSO. New reservoir engineering studies are looking at reduced well count models.
Results will feed into alternative facilities engineering concepts leading to a new economic evaluation. The company hopes that demonstrating the commercial viability of a development even in the current environment will assist the farm-out process.
03/31/2016
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