Offshore staff
EDINBURGH, UK – Cairn Energy has a conditional farm-in agreement with Deltic Energy to take an operated, majority interest in five UK southern North Sea licenses.
Under the arrangement, Cairn would fund the work program for P2428 and P2567 (60% WI) and P2560, P2561 and P2562 (70% WI) until the drill or drop decision, paying $1 million upfront to Deltic toward historical cost.
Cairn is also preparing to drill on two UK central North Sea licenses that the company already operates, with the Jaws exploration well on P2380 expected to spud in 4Q, followed by the Diadem well on P2379 next spring. A commercial discovery in either case could lead to a subsea tieback development through nearby Shell-operated Nelson production facilities.
There is analogous exploration potential on the company’s wholly-owned licenses P2379 and P2381, while on P2468 (Cairn 50% WI, Operator) in the East Orkney basin, newly acquired shallow geophysical data will assist positioning of shallow seafloor boreholes to be drilled in the current quarter.
In the Harbour Energy-operated Catcher Area (Cairn 20%), gas reinjection trials are delivering positive results, with a proposal submitted to the Oil and Gas Authority for continual reinjection. At the same time, Harbour is managing the impact of calcium naphthenate build-up on produced water plant performance.
Three new wells will likely be drilled in the Catcher Area from 1Q 2022 onwards, following results of a 4D seismic survey earlier this year to monitor fluid movement within the main reservoirs.
In block 10 offshore Mexico, Cairn and operator Eni are assessing a potential cluster development following this summer’s 150-250-MMboe Sayulita oil discovery. Mexico’s CNH has approved the evaluation plan for the 2020 Saasken discovery elsewhere on the block, including drilling of the Saasken-2DEL appraisal well later this year: if successful, the well would be suspended as a future oil producer.
As for the Talos Energy-operated block 7 (Cairn 30%), the partners are reviewing various prospects with a view to drilling a second commitment exploration well in 2022.
Offshore Suriname, Cairn is considering acquiring 3D seismic over block 61 to help work up potential drilling opportunities in shallow and deepwater areas of the block, with the license’s current phase now extended through June 2022.
Later this year the company plans to initiate seismic reprocessing and an environmental baseline survey over its recently awarded block C7 off Mauritania.
09/07/2021
