The year is less than three months old, but quite a few things have already happened across Northwest European shelves – see map below. Here is a quick summary of the highlights. Will these activities result in a major discovery? Probably not.
Whilst drilling activity continues to be most buoyant in Norway, it must be concluded when looking at the map that no discoveries have yet been reported this year. With four wells currently being drilled across the NCS, this situation may soon come to an end though.
Do you want to hear more about these wells, you’ve got until 9:00 am GMT to register for our webinar during which Henk Kombrink will further discuss the drilling landscape from a subsurface perspective. Register here.
Of those dry NCS wells already reported, the Melstein prospect drilled by Lundin probably was the most “frontier” well of all. It tested the Frøya High in the southern part of the Norwegian Sea, a setting that finds an analogue at the Utsira High further south. Whilst pre-drill volumes (160 MMboe) were certainly much less than what Johan Sverdrup contains, the presence of an Upper Jurassic sandstone draping basement rocks does sound familiar.
An interesting observation is that two wells have been suspended in Norway. Both East Frigg (25/2-23A) and Ormen Lange Deep (305/5-C-3H) have come to a standstill. We have not been investigating this any further, but it can only be anticipated that these targets will be drilled at some point in the future.
Attend the NCS Exploration – Recent Discoveries Conference in Oslo in June this year and hear directly from operators how recent drilling results across the NCS came in and were subsequently evaluated.
Of those wells currently drilling, 35/10-8 targeting the Kveikje prospect may be announced soon as the reservoir is a relatively shallow Eocene injectite.
In the UK, a result to be expected soon is the Birgitta (East) well (22/19a-8) that is currently being drilled by Petrogas. If successful, it will add an estimated 6.7 MMboe to the already proven 12.8 MMboe in the compartment (Birgitta) to the west. This is also the reason why the OGA carries the Birgitta East well as an appraisal.
In the Dutch sector, Neptune has commenced drilling the F05-6 well, most likely targeting a shallow gas prospect. Another well was previously drilled within the extent of the prospect in 1982 (F05-2), but this one targeted a deeper reservoir at times when any shallow gas was probably seen as a risk rather than an opportunity. In the meantime, ONE-Dyas will probably soon finalise their second appraisal well (F06-9) on their IJssel discovery.
The geothermal sector has had a few set-backs recently. The Leeuwarden well suffered from poor reservoir performance during the initial testing phase, which has sparked further investigation into the root cause of the problem. Although information is sparse, possible explanations are that testing was performed within a sub-optimal reservoir section in combination with possible formation damage.
At the same time, injection and production testing at the Eden geothermal site in Cornwall has recently led to a 1.7 induced seismic event. Even though this is still low and within safety limits, operations were halted. Given the major investment into both the Eden and United Downs geothermal projects, it can only be hoped that no larger induced seismic events will occur once they are in operation.
HENK KOMBRINK
