OMV is seeking to reduce its exposure to risk at the Tornado prospect west of Shetland by farming out a large chunk of the licences which it straddles prior to drilling early next year.
Recoverable reserves are 176million barrels oil equivalent (P10 volume, which means high-case estimate) and the target is “well positioned for development following exploration success”.
A rig has been booked to drill Tornado, which is located in an area already known to possess oil&gas resources.
The probe is expected to cost about $30million and OMV expects that whoever farms in will shoulder 20-40% of the well costs.
The 22nd Round P1190 and P1262 licences where Tornado is located are adjacent to the Suilven oil&gas discovery – about 30km north of the Schiehallion field and about 25km south of the Cambo find.
This means that, should the exploration probe live up to expectations then, subject to appraisal, Tornado offers the potential of being a sizeable tie-in opportunity for existing infrastructure.
That basically means BP-operated Schiehallion, which is currently the subject of a redevelopment plan.
There is a strong case for considering a tie-in as Tornado crude is likely to be much the same as Schiehallion’s – that is, in the 25-27 degrees API range and gas-to-oil ratio (GOR) of 300-500cu ft per barrel.
Besides the core field, according to Indigopool, which is handling the farm-out for OMV, there is upside potential in the nearby Spitfire lead in block 204/14b.
The mean resource estimate for that is 27million boe.