Twelve programmes completed on NCS

The Island Innovator is drilling in the Norwegian Sea Westwood Global Energy reports that there are six active wells on the NCS at the time of writing towards the end of June, two of which are exploration wells.

To date in 2018, 12 well programmes (nine exploration, three appraisal, including one junked) have completed with an additional well, Gekko 25/4-13 S, recently suspended. There have been two exploration well completions in June, one targeting the 16/1-29 S Little Prince (Lille Prinsen) prospect which made a commercial oil discovery. The 34/8-19 S Aegir prospect that was drilled from the Visund Nord template was dry. Equinor made a 6-35 mmbo oil discovery with the Lille Prinsen well, in good-to-moderate quality reservoirs to the north-west of the Johan Sverdrup field on the Utsira High. There were three well spuds in June, two of which were appraisals. Equinor spudded appraisal well 15/3-10 on June 5 targeting the Sigrun East discovery, but junked it eight days later and a second well, 15/3-11, was spudded and still operating. Aker BP also had to junk appraisal well 25/4-12 targeting its Gekko discovery, to be followed by a new appraisal well 24/5-13 S on June 6. According to the NPD this well in now suspended. Aegir exploration well 34/8-19 S operated by Equinor was spudded on June 12, from the Visund Nord template and was P&A dry on June 20.

There were two active exploration wells spudded in May, a Shelloperated 34/5-2 S well targeting the Tyttebaer prospect and the Wellesley Petroleum-operated 35/12-6 S targeting the Kallasen prospect, sidetracked in June. Lundin Petroleum-operated appraisal well 16/128 S, spudded in April and targeting the Rolvsnes discovery, is still active. The only active well in the Norwegian Sea is Spirit Energy’s Fogelberg appraisal sidetrack well, 6506/9-4 A, being drilled by the Island Innovator. The sidetrack well was kicked off on April 28, the day after the completion of initial appraisal well 6506/9-4 S. There has been no activity in the Barents Sea since Aker BP’s noncommercial gas discovery, Svanefjell, made by well 7221/12-1 on May 25, although Lundin’s appraisal at Alta is ongoing. Westwood Global Energy reports that at the end of June there was one exploration and one appraisal well active on the UK Continental Shelf, both west of Shetland. Siccar Point spudded its Cambo Paleocene appraisal well on April 24 with the West Hercules semisubmersible, which mobilised from a port in Norway.

The well was sidetracked with a horizontal leg on May 29, however this was abandoned, presumably for mechanical reasons, and sidetracked on June 13 with well 204/10a-5Y.

It is expected that the planned extended well test will now be conducted on this current leg.

Operations with Total’s Glendronach exploration well 206/4a-4 were continuing at the end of June, following its spud with the Stena Don on 27 May.

The well is targeting the Lower Cretaceous Sovereign Formation from a surface location over the Edradour field and has an expected duration of 80-120 days. There is no current E&A drilling in the Northern North Sea. The next well expected to be drilled is Azinor’s 9/14a Agar appraisal well, which will be sidetracked with an exploration well to test the Plantain prospect. In June, Azinor announced that Cairn had agreed to farm-in to this well which is expected to be drilled in Q3. There is no current E&A drilling activity in the Central North Sea. Drilling in this region is next expected at either Chevron’s West Wick appraisal well with the Ocean Guardian or Cairn’s 22/18c Ekland prospect for which the Ensco 101 has been contracted. With no current E&A drilling activity, the next well which is expected to be drilled is the 43/12 Andromeda prospect, close to Spirit Energy’s Pegasus development on block 43/13b. Notification for the drilling of this well, however, has yet to be submitted to the OGA.