Shell, Spirit Energy and Faroe Petroleum have been awarded PL 969 (blocks 1/6 and 1/8) over the Norwegian side of the cross-border Edinburgh prospect in the recent APA licensing round. The partners have agreed to equalise their working interest in UK Block 30/14a and b on the same basis as in PL 969: Faroe 45%, Shell 40% and Spirit 15%.
Faroe will operate the Edinburgh area until a final well decision is taken and then Shell will take over.
The large Edinburgh prospect straddles the UK/Norway border in the Central North Sea at the south eastern end of the prolific Josephine Ridge area. The structure is a large, tilted Mesozoic fault block, and is considered to be one of the largest remaining undrilled structures in the Central North Sea covering an area of over 40 square kilometres. The prospective reservoirs include the Upper Jurassic Ula age-equivalent (Freshney and Fulmar) and Triassic Skagerrak formations. According to Faroe the prospect has material volumes with potential for stand-alone development.
