New oil find at North Sea field

Scottish oil & gas firms Cairn Energy and Faroe Petroleum yesterdayannouncedadiscovery of up to 50 million barrels of oil in the North Sea.

The find at the Agar-plantain prospect is close to existing infrastructure and the firms said further evaluation of commercial development options will now be carried out.

Edinburgh-based Cairn owns a 50 per cent interest in the well with Faroe owning 25 per cent and operator Azinor Catalyst holding the remainder.

Based on initial analysis of the discovery, Azinor estimates the discovery holds recoverable resources of between 15 and 50 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe). The well is 12 kilometres from the Beryl Bravo facility and 14 kilometres from the Alvheim floating production facility.

Faroe Petroleum described the find as a “very promising” discovery and chief executive Graham Stewart said it had been the company’s first exploration well in the UK since 2013.

“Together with the award of the exploration licence on the exciting Edinburgh prospect earlier this year marks a return of focus to the UKCS which offers significant value potential,” he said

The Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) also welcomed the Agar-plantain announcement which it said was a “great example of technology-driven exploration” with the latest seismic techniques used.

Dr Paul Herrington of the OGA said: “Provisional results are very encouraging, especially given the location in an infrastructure-rich area of the UK North Sea.”

However, Cairn said yesterday that an exploration well at the Ekland prospect in the North Sea, in which it has a 45 per cent interest, had failed to find commercial oil and gas. It also announced a farm-out agreement for a 40 per cent non-operated interest in a licence in the Chimera prospect in the North Sea.