Faroe Petroleum, the independent oil and gas company focusing principally on exploration, appraisal and production opportunities in the Atlantic margin, the North Sea and Norway, announces that due to technical difficulties the drilling of a side-track well on the Butch South West exploration prospect has been brought to a close short of its exploration objective.
As announced on 7 December 2011 following the Butch discovery and first side-track appraisal, the licence partnership decided to drill a second side-track well from the same surface location. The objective of this side-track well was to target additional oil volumes in an exploration prospect located to the south of Butch within a new segment containing the same reservoir. However hole instability problems were encountered whilst drilling the section above the main reservoir and given that this exploration target can be drilled more efficiently and with significantly lower technical risk from a new well located closer to the prospect, the partnership has decided to curtail drilling operations on this side-track. Accordingly the well is being plugged and abandoned.
The Butch discovery, announced on 18 October 2011, has opened an exciting new oil play. An appraisal side-track was drilled successfully, directly following the discovery well, proving up light oil in excellent quality reservoir. The operator (Centrica) has calculated a preliminary resource estimate of 30 to 60 million barrels of oil equivalent. The discovery is situated in 66 metres water depth in the Norwegian North Sea, close to significant existing infrastructure with the producing fields Ula, Tambar and Gyda located approximately 7 kilometres to the west, 10 kilometres to the south west and 20 kilometres to the south respectively.
As announced on 7 December 2011 following the Butch discovery and first side-track appraisal, the licence partnership decided to drill a second side-track well from the same surface location. The objective of this side-track well was to target additional oil volumes in an exploration prospect located to the south of Butch within a new segment containing the same reservoir. However hole instability problems were encountered whilst drilling the section above the main reservoir and given that this exploration target can be drilled more efficiently and with significantly lower technical risk from a new well located closer to the prospect, the partnership has decided to curtail drilling operations on this side-track. Accordingly the well is being plugged and abandoned.
The Butch discovery, announced on 18 October 2011, has opened an exciting new oil play. An appraisal side-track was drilled successfully, directly following the discovery well, proving up light oil in excellent quality reservoir. The operator (Centrica) has calculated a preliminary resource estimate of 30 to 60 million barrels of oil equivalent. The discovery is situated in 66 metres water depth in the Norwegian North Sea, close to significant existing infrastructure with the producing fields Ula, Tambar and Gyda located approximately 7 kilometres to the west, 10 kilometres to the south west and 20 kilometres to the south respectively.
