At the time of writing, some seven E&A (exploration & appraisal) wells are active, with this representing no change since last month. Of these current seven, five are exploration and two appraisal in nature, with two in the Gas Basin, four in the Central North Sea and one in the Northern North Sea.
To date this year, eight wells have spudded, representing an increase of one since the last report.
Currently, some 30 mobile rigs are active on the UK Continental Shelf, with seven on E&A drilling duties and 23 on D&P (development & production) operations. In addition, 12 are in port, with five awaiting to resume contracts, and seven stacked, two of which are available.
Both the West of Shetland and East Irish Sea sectors remain devoid of E&A drilling.
Northern North Sea
Here, Apache continues operations with exploration well 9/19b-18 which is targeting the M.Jurassic K prospect with the WilPhoenix. Operations on this well started in mid-April.
Central North Sea
In the CNS, Nexen continues with well 22/13b-9 on the Manhattan prospect, where the Blackford Dolphin is targeting an U.Jurassic formation.
GDF Suez is drilling ahead with its second Dalziel sidetrack, well 22/16-6Y, using the GSF Galaxy II. The pilot hole for this well was spudded last year and completion is expected soon.
Apache has now wrapped-up operations on the first two wells on its Les Arcs prospect (21/10-F4, #F4Z), both abandoned, although the second side-track to spud is classed by DECC as development and remains active. The Rowan Gorilla 7 was employed on the task.
Total continues to drill ahead with its HP/HT Corfe exploration well 29/3b-9 with the Prospector 5 jack-up while in the adjacent quadrant, ConocoPhillips’ Jasmine appraisal well 30/6a-9 has since been abandoned by the Maersk Resilient.
Wintershall spudded exploration well 44/19a-8 early May, targeting the Sillimanite prospect and utilising the Ensco 121, which had been mobilised from the Dutch sector for this programme. The well is targeting a Carboniferous objective.
Meanwhile, GDF Suez-operated Humphrey appraisal side-track, well 44/16a-4Z, is drilling ahead using the jack-up GSF Monarch, again with a Carboniferous objective.
Overview
A number of wells are expected to spud in the coming month, therefore when we next report mid-way through the year we will be expecting the E&A well count to have hit double figures, possibly even reaching a dozen on the basis of the eight wells that have spudded to date this year and the number for which a PON has been submitted to DECC.
While no exploration successes have been officially reported this year, Les Arcs has now been side-tracked with a development well (21/10-F4Y) – we therefore postulate this to have been successful.
Dry Spell as summer months roll in
At the end of May there were six active E&A wells on the NCS – four exploratory, the rest appraisal. Five are North Sea, the sixth is Barents Sea.
Also, there are 15 active D&P wells based on mobiles – 12 in the North Sea, two in the Norwegian Sea and one in the Barents.
Currently, there are 40 mobile drilling units in Norwegian waters of which six are on E&A duties and 15 on D&P drilling. In addition, four fixed platform D&P wells were active at the end of last month.
Of the remaining 19 mobiles, four are stacked in port, including one on a suspended contract; two to begin contract imminently; the West Navigator in port and listed as available; plus 15 are either between drilling locations or working on in-field operations.
North Sea
Of the four wells currently active, Lundin’s long-running well 33/2-2 S on the Morkel prospect continues to drill ahead with the Bredford Dolphin, while Maersk Gallant continues with Statoil’s well 2/4-23 S on the HP/HT Julius prospect.
Following successful completion of 3ell 16/1-21 S, 21 A on the Geopilot East prospect, the Maersk Interceptor has mobilised to drill well 16/1-22 S on Geopilot West for Det norske.
Well 15/6-13 was abandoned dry on Gina Krog East 3 mid-month and the Songa Trym has since begun working on side-track well 15/6-13 A for Statoil.
Also active in the North Sea is well 35/12-5 S on the Crossbill prospect, which Transocean Arctic is drilling for Wintershall.
Besides the Gina Krog East 3 pilot hole, two other North Sea wells were completed last month, namely the 34/4-14 S appraisal of the Beta discovery (Suncor) and 15/12-24 S on the Snømus prospect for Talisman with the Maersk Giant. Both were dusters.
Norwegian Sea
In the Norwegian Sea Wintershall-operated well 6406/2-8 drilled by the Transocean Arctic on the Imsa prospect encountered oil. But Bister prospect wells 6407/8-7 and 6407/8-7 A drilled by Statoil with the Transocean Spitsbergen were dry.
Barents Sea
Lundin’s sidetracked Alta appraisal 7220/11-2 A is the only active well in the Barents at present following the Island Innovator plugging pilot well 7220/11-2 at the beginning of the month. OMV’s 7324/8-2 well drilled by the Leiv Eiriksson on the Bjaaland prospect was dry.
Overview
It has been a particularly dry month in Norway with five out of eight wells having been abandoned as dusters in all three sectors of the NCS, However, results are still to be announced for two pilot holes on the North Sea’s Gina Krog East 3 prospect and the much awaited Barents Sea’s Alta prospect which are in the process of being side-tracked.
Yet another minor oil discovery has been made in the vicinity of the Kristin field, with Imsa proving 6–50million barrels oil equivalent. However, concerns have been raised over reservoir quality which was considered to be sufficiently challenging not to warrant the planned test of well 6406/2-8.
Suncor’s first operated well of the year, Beta, failed to get the desired results to the north of Snorre. It was hoped that the Beta appraisal would double volumes. The find remains marginal at some 44million boe.
All is far from lost, particularly in the North Sea which again is seeing the lion’s share of activity where five out of six active wells are located.
Julius has the potential to add significant reserves to the King Lear area; Ivar Aasen is powering on through development; and the promising southern part of Quad 35 has the potential to become somewhat rejuvenated should the Crossbill prospect provide sufficient reserves to incorporate it into the Skarfjell and/or Astero developments.
This column by David Moseley and Matthias Sasso is courtesy of North Sea analyst Hannon Westwood
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