A dozen mobile units are currently employed on drilling operations in UK waters.
Exploration wells, including a single sidetrack, account for four of these while eight appraisal wells including three sidetracks are active.
By April 20 the month had seen six well starts . . . two exploration spuds (one of which is a relief well) and a sidetrack, and one appraisal spud and two sidetracks.
The total number of spuds for March amounted to seven wells with no sidetracks; it looks as if April might surpass this.
MPX’s Orlando appraisal, recently sidetracked, and BG’s sidetracked Jackdaw appraisal remain the only two carryovers from 2011.
Starts to date in 2012 amount to 17 wells . . . seven exploration spuds plus a sidetrack, and seven appraisals and two sidetracks.
Development and production drilling numbers add up to 29 wells from 14 mobile units and seven platform-based rigs covering 19 fields, but excludes mobile units on tie-back, workover or accommodation duties – just those conducting drilling operations.
o West of Shetland
E&A activity in the West of Shetland area has dropped to a single well with BP’s 213/25c-1 one month in on North Uist/Cardhu with the Stena Carron drillship. Total’s Tomintoul 205/9-2 was temporarily suspended after 45 days so that the sixth generation semi-submersible West Phoenix could assist in the operation to stop the gas leak at the Elgin field.
o Northern NS
Four wells are active in the Northern North Sea, otherwise known as the East Shetland Basin.
The Sedco 714 temporarily suspended operations on the area’s sole exploration well, namely Total’s 3/15a-15 on the Fettercairn prospect after 22 days, the unit also moving to Elgin.
All other operations in the area are appraisals. The WilHunter semi-submersible sidetracked MPX’s troubled 3/3b-13 (Orlando) on April 4 – to re-drill the reservoir section; Xcite’s 9/3b-7 on Bentley with the Rowan Norway jack-up continues; as does Valiant’s Upper Jurassic Tybalt 211/8c-5 with Borgsten Dolphin semi-submersible.
Operations are wrapping up on Sterling’s Cladhan South well 210/29c-5 where the semi-Sedco 704) encountered the Upper Jurassic objective, on prognosis but found it to be devoid of hydrocarbons.
o Central NS
In the Central North Sea, six wells are ongoing.
Nexen spudded Stingray exploration well 15/13b-11 targeting Upper Jurassic sands on April 9 with the GSF Arctic III semi, the unit’s first well since its return from Irish waters. Total spudded relief well 22/30c-K1 – tagged as an exploration well by DECC in the absence of a suitable category given (thankfully) the rarity of relief wells in the sector, though the first of two such wells planned for the Elgin field.
Sumitomo sidetracked exploration probe 29/1c-9 targeting the Orchid prospect (Sedco 711 semi) on April 17 after 12 days at total depth on the initial well. On the appraisal front, jack-up Ensco 101 remains on Maersk’s Ockley appraisal 30/1d-12, operations still continue on BG’s Jackdaw appraisal 30/2a-8Z with jack-up Rowan Gorilla 6 while GDF SUEZ’ 30/13b-10 (jack-up Galaxy 2) on the Jacqui discovery was sidetracked on April 7 after 77 days.
o Southern NS
In the Southern North Sea, Dana has, as expected, begun operations on Platypus 48/1a-6, spudding on April 11 with the jack-up Ensco 80 at the start of a horizontal programme to evaluate the quality of the Rotliegendes reservoir.
Total’s step up in activity which saw the operator increase its UK rig count significantly has, as if serendipitously, enabled the company to throw immediate and major resources into stemming the Elgin field G4 well gas leak on block 22/30c.
Four rigs – Rowan Gorilla V from West Franklin tie-back ops, Rowan Viking (in situ when the leak started), Sedco 714 from the NNS Fettecairn prospect and West Phoenix from the West of Shetland Tomintoul prospect – are now on the block and involved in relief well drilling and G4 top-kill operations, doing whatever it takes to regain control.
Total’s operations elsewhere in the sector have taken a hit and schedules will be impacted, but rightly, DECC and Total’s partners in any impacted licences will take a pragmatic view. With BP’s GOM Macondo event still too fresh in the mind, Total won’t spare the horses in its quest to remedy this situation.
In Norwegian waters, as at the end of March, seven E&A wells are active . . . four exploration wells and three appraisals utilising five semi-submersible rigs and two jack-up units.
Just one April well had been spudded at the time of writing this report, and a single completion is noted. Development/production drilling has been bolstered with the start of Statoil’s Gulfaks Sør injection well 34/10-E-2-AH by North Atlantic Drilling’s giant three leg jack-up, West Elara.
In all, some 17 fields are currently utilising 14 semi-submersibles, five jack-ups and a drillship.
o North Sea
In the North Sea, four wells are active; two exploration and two appraisals.
Lundin’s southern flank Avaldsnes (Johan Sverdrup) appraisal, 16/2-11, with the Bredford Dolphin semi, remains in sidetrack.
The two Maersk jack-ups, the Maersk Gallant and Maersk Guardian, continue operations on Statoil’s 2/4-21 and Det norske’s deviated Upper Jurassic Storebjørn well 7/12-13 S respectively.
Wintershall’s Skarfjell exploration well, 35/9-7, one of two wells both operated by Wintershall that spudded in March, found potentially commercial light oil in two intervals within good quality Upper Jurassic sands although no DST (drill-stem test) programme was conducted due to rig commitments; the Songa Delta having to mobilise to spud appraisal well 33/6-3 S for Suncor on PL375 B on April 17. Transocean (Aker) Barents semi-submersible is yet to spud Det norske’s 25/1-12.
o Norwegian Sea
In the Norwegian Sea, operations continue on Wintershall’s 6407/1-5 S, with the Borgland Dolphin semi appraising the 2010 Middle Jurassic Maria discovery, and on RWE’s 6507/7-15 S HP/HT (high pressure/high temperature) exploration probe on the Lower/Middle Jurassic Zidane 2 prospect (PL435) with the West Alpha semi.
o Barents Sea
In the Barents Sea, Noreco’s exploration well 7228/1-1 (PL396), on the Eik Prospect, failed to find commercial quantities of hydrocarbons and is to abandon. The well was drilled by Transocean (Aker) Barents semi, which is now headed for the North Sea.
The number of well starts on the NCS in 2012 is currently 11, including one sidetrack, with just one well spud noted to date in April.
The UK sector, after a relatively strong month in March, is ahead in the stakes with 14 spuds, three of which commenced in April.
All told, after a slow start 2012 is shaping up to outstrip 2011 in drilling levels alone. Whether success rates, at least on a technical level, can be bettered remains to be seen.
What is likely is that the two sectors may experience something of a seesaw effect in the number of well starts, a factor, primarily, of a pick-up in UK drilling levels placing it more on par with Norwegian activity levels.
Simon Robertshaw’s UK and Norwegian columns are courtesy of Northwest Europe Continental Shelf analysts Hannon Westwood
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