At the time of writing, there were no April E&A (exploration & appraisal) well spuds to report, ergo the new well count for 2017 stays at two. The number of active wells also remains at just two, including one carried over from 2016.
However, with notification of two new wells having been submitted to the OGA in the last month, it seems that overall E&A activity levels will outstrip the poor effort of last year.
Both Q2 and Q3 are already forecast to see substantial levels of new drilling, with the potential for up to 10 E&A well spuds, the majority of which will be in the Central North Sea.
All-in-all, despite the quiet start to the year, with drilling activity expected to ramp-up through the next two quarters, there is real potential for significant new UKCS resources to be added through the drill-bit.
Now to the current position.
West of Shetland
With Hurricane having completed operations at Halifax, the last of its three-well programme with the Transocean Spitsbergen, there are no active wells in this region.
The next well expected to be drilled will target Nexen’s Craster prospect, for which notification has been submitted to the OGA, with operations to be conducted using the rig West Phoenix.
Northern North Sea
Just one well remains active in the Northern North Sea. Total’s HPHT Sween exploration probe, which is understood to still be drilling ahead with the Rowan Gorilla V, following spud on January 9.
The well is a down-dip appraisal of an U.Jurassic gas-condensate bearing sand encountered in a 1985 well and is targeting an additional undrilled sand lobe. The well is designated “tight hole” and completion is now expected this month.
Central North Sea
As reported last month, there are no new drilling updates from this region and the results from both ConocoPhillips’ Temple Wood and TAQA’s Sturgeon wells remain under wraps.
Despite this area not having seen any new activity this year, as in previous years it is expected to see the largest number of wells drilled come year-end, with several companies gearing up to drill in Q2 and Q3 as noted above.
These include Azinor, BP, Maersk, Nexen, Shell and Statoil, with the majority of wells classed as exploratory, although Maersk’s appraisal well on the Yeoman discovery is expected to be first to drill.
Southern North Sea
BP continues to drill ahead with its Ravenspurn North Deep deviated exploration well (classed as appraisal by the OGA) targeting a tight gas Carboniferous Namurian target.
While at least one heavily deviated or horizontal leg is thought to be required as part of the well programme, the initial well remains in its original hole following its spud in early December.
Elsewhere, Oranje Nassau is preparing to drill a firm well on a recent Out of Round Innovate licence award, covering three blocks in the immediate vicinity of its Sean Field area. The Prospector 1 jack-up will do the work.
Norway – Eni’s 7318/12-2 explo well abandoned as “Boné” dry
April saw completion of appraisal well 16/1-27, targeting the Edvard Grieg field and the spudding of one exploration well in the Norwegian Sea, targeting the Stordal prospect.
This means the total number of active wells on the Norwegian Continental Shelf at the time of writing remains at two, with operations continuing at Gohta where 6705/7-1 is the second potentially high impact exploration well to be drilled this year.
However, we can report that well 7318/12-2 targeting the Boné prospect was plugged and abandoned by operator Eni as a duster on March 19.
North Sea
The completion of appraisal well 16/1-27 operated by Lundin with the Island Innovator has led to the addition of 10-30million barrels equivalent of incremental reserves from the south-western extension of the Edvard Grieg field.
The well encountered a 15m (49ft) gross oil column at the top of a 94m (308ft) thick U.Jurassic sandstone reservoir that was encountered deeper than expected and 56m (184ft) thicker than the pre-drill estimate.
The reservoir was found to be of excellent quality and the additional proved up reserves have replaced much of the 27.5million boe that has been produced from the field since its start-up in November 2015.
Norwegian Sea
April saw Lundin spud the potentially high impact well 6705/7-1 with the Transocean Spitsbergen and targeting the Stordal prospect located some 25km north of the Asterix discovery and about 75km north west of the Aasta Hansteen gasfield.
The well is targeting the same U.Cretaceous Santonian to Campanian Nise formation reservoirs that are producing at the Aasta Hansteen field, within a structural closure with prospectivity at multiple levels.
Barents Sea
Despite the continuing operations at well 7120/1-5, appraising the Gohta discovery using the Leiv Eiriksson, there has been no further activity in the Barents Sea.
However, late March did see operations completed at the potentially high impact exploration well 7318/12-2, targeting Lower to Middle Jurassic sands on the high risk Boné prospect.
The well encountered around 100m of gross water bearing reservoir in the M.Jurassic primary target of the Realgrunnen Group. A 60m section of low quality M.Jurassic sandstone was also encountered. The failure of the well could be due to containment breach, however given the lack of reported shows it is more likely to be a result of an insufficient source or migration pathway.
Overview
The addition of one more well has taken the total number of E&A wells to have spudded on the NCS so far this year to seven, which is still four fewer than was seen by this stage in 2016 and 11 wells behind the 2013 and 2015 tallies. However, completion of both the Mim and Albiorix ILX wells in March did increase the commercial resources found so far this year by 30million boe, thus bringing the tally to 115million boe and delivered at a finding cost of $2.25 per barrel.
In comparison, after the completion of five dry holes and two technical discoveries at the end of Q1 2016 the total discovered commercial resource was zero barrels. This suggests that, despite the reduction in drilling activity seen so far, exploration wells in 2017 could yet identify more than the 242million boe found last year.
This column by Roderick Bevens and David Moseley is courtesy of analysts Westwood Global Energy Group
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