According to Nick Dancer, General Manager at Petrogas Netherlands, the results of well 22/19a-8 targeting the Birgitta East fault block adjacent to the previously discovered Birgitta gas discovery have come in positively and may even have exceeded expectations.
What is now called Birgitta was discovered as Fiddich in 1984 by Occidental through drilling 22/19-1. The structure comprises of two tilted fault blocks, then named Fiddich Main and Fiddich East. The 22/19-1 well drilled the Main compartment and produced 15.07 mmscfd and 1519 bpd of condensate upon test from the Skagerrak Formation at a depth of around 3,850 m.
The volume found in the main compartment of Birgitta amounts to 12.78 MMboe according to the Relinquishment Report operator Talisman submitted in 2011, concluding that the capacity and commercial issues precluded a successful development.
Now, Petrogas may have even found more than the anticipated 6.7 MMboe in the East compartment, even though Talisman predicted Birgitta East to be more complex a structure. At the same time, the outlines are well defined and a seismic flat spot also provided confidence for the presence of a hydrocarbon column.
With Petrogas being 100% owner of the licence, the company will now need to agree on an export route with the most likely candidates – the ETAP or Montrose clusters to the south and west of Birgitta respectively.
HENK KOMBRINK
