Parkmead this morning confirmed it had nearly doubled its stake in the major Sanda North and Sanda South structures in the West of Shetland area of the UK North Sea.
The Palaeocene prospects are both located within Block 205/13 and have the potential to contain 280 million barrels of recoverable oil on a most likely, P50 basis.
“The Primary play fairway developed on this acreage is the Paleocene Vaila Formation which forms the reservoir in the important nearby oil fields at Foinaven, Schiehallion and Loyal, and also in the Laggan and Tormore gas discoveries which are situated to the north east of Sanda,” spokesperson said.
“The Vaila Formation consists of a sequence of interbedded sandstones, deposited in a submarine fan environment, and contains five main reservoir units. Detailed mapping of Block 205/13 indicates two exploration targets, Sanda North and Sanda South, which are defined by distinct amplitude anomalies in the Palaeocene Vaila section.”
The independent explorer also discussed Statoil’s exploration bid in the Verbier prospect, which borders Parkmead’s stake in the Polecat and Marten oil fields in the UK Central North Sea.
Verbier lies in the same play fairway as Polecat and Marten, and shares many similarities with the fields.
Parkmead’s chief executive Tom Cross said Statoil’s interest in the area could help boost the value of his firm’s prospects.
He said: “We are delighted to have nearly doubled our stake in the very large Sanda North and Sanda South prospects, which have the potential to add major value to the Company.
“The West of Shetland is an area that we understand well, and this increased stake further builds on the strength of Parkmead’s asset portfolio in the UK.
“We are pleased that high-impact exploration close to our acreage could add further regional value to Parkmead’s assets, at no cost to our Company.
“The team at Parkmead is working intensively to evaluate and execute further value-adding opportunities in our core areas of the UK and Netherlands.”