Premier Oil is certain that the Catcher oil discovery in the UK Central North Sea is commercial and will be developed using either a floating production system or a fixed platform.
The outstanding question to settle is the scale of hydrocarbon resources in the Greater Catcher area on block 28/9. The current estimate is 100million barrels recoverable based on drilled and appraised Catcher and Catcher East.
But the gross Greater Catcher resource may be 800million barrels, of which more than 300million could be recoverable.
A sizeable number of Catcher analogues have been picked out during geo-mapping of Greater Catcher, with potential future targets including Carnaby (65million barrels oil equivalent in place reserves estimate), Burgman (45million barrels), and 40million-barrel Varadero.
Nigel Wilson, UK general manager for Premier Oil, told Energy that he expected this to be answered by the two to four well further exploration and appraisal campaign kicked off on October 1 by the Galaxy II jack-up drilling rig.
Moreover, he expects the appraisal phase of Catcher to be effectively complete by the end of this year/early next. It is already a sizeable find, and Wilson said: “We think it will prove to be a big discovery.
“The first target is the Varadero prospect. Depending on the outcome, the partners may decide to drill another prospect, or we may move to Catcher North. We’ll make our minds up once we have the results of first well.”
“So far we have high-quality crude, good-quality reservoirs and material size, so we’re very happy with the outcome so far.
“However, although we have gained confidence from the first well, there are still risks to the new programme. We have to remember that they are independent prospects and therefore this is an exploration programme.”
Referring to the encouraging geological signatures to yet-to-be-drilled Greater Catcher prospects, he said this had played a significant part in the decision to push ahead on the further drilling front without delay.
One of the risks is that heavy crude could be encountered, rather than the high-grade light found with the first Catcher well. This part of the North Sea is better known for heavy rather than light oils.
Explaining why Varadero rather than Catcher North had been selected first, Wilson said: “We need to understand the extent of prospects on the block rather than just the potential of Catcher. Catcher North will inform us about Catcher but this will tell us more about the block.”
As for EnCore’s role in the Catcher story, he said the fact that the company held an interest of just 16% in the acreage versus Premier’s 40%, was not a problem.
“EnCore has done a very good job of the exploration to date. Drilling to date has been carried out cheaply and efficiently and we’re happy that EnCore continues as operator for the rest of the exploration programme,” he said.
“They’ve done an excellent job. Before we do anything in partner terms, what we need to understand first is how much oil we have on the block.
“Right now, we don’t know whether the joint venture will remain the same as we take this project forward. But right now it’s working very well.”
Wilson said the main issue for the partners for now was the scale of the development, not whether Catcher was commercial.
“That’s what the next bunch of wells will tell us; that’s going to be an important step forward,” he said.
“This is a standalone, whether it be a big FPSO (production ship) or a fixed structure. We’ll work that out as we go forward.
“I think we’ll make Catcher happen as soon as possible. I think it will be an important enough project for it not to be delayed in any way.
“We’ve demonstrated that through the decision to get on with drilling two to four further exploration and appraisal wells; also in terms of getting on with better determination of the reserves base.”
Wilson said the idea of putting an early production system into Catcher had not been discussed. As far as he was concerned, it should be full steam ahead with development.
“We’re looking at the potential for first oil in 2014. We would like to see the exploration phase brought to an end pretty much this year, clearing 2010-on to push ahead with development,” he said.
Partners in Catcher are EnCore as operator (15%), Premier Oil (35%), Agora (15%), Nautical (15%) and Wintershall (20%).