UK-focused Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) said it plans to spud an appraisal well in the Harvey prospect during the first week of August.
The Maersk Resilient is currently due to finish its prior operations over the coming week and start re-locating to Harvey. As such, the Harvey well is expected to spud around August 3, although this date is still subject to date of release from its current contract over the coming days, IOG said. The well is expected to take approximately two months in the success case.
Maersk Drilling said the contract has an estimated duration of 37 days, with extensions up to 60 days.
Andrew Hockey, CEO of IOG, said, "We expect to spud the exciting Harvey appraisal well around the end of next week and look forward to drilling the well safely and successfully. Given its potential size and synergies with our other assets, Harvey has the potential to create significant shareholder value."
In addition, IOG confirmed that it has signed a Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Perenco UK Limited, Tullow Oil SK Limited and Spirit Energy Resources Limited for the acquisition of the Thames Reception Facilities (TRF) at the Bacton Gas Terminal.
The TRF comprises an area of land within the Perenco part of Bacton Gas Terminal where IOG’s fully-owned Thames Pipeline connects to the terminal. It contains certain gas and liquids reception equipment which is planned to be refurbished and recommissioned during the development phase of IOG’s Core Project, which comprises 410 BCF of 2P+2C reserves and resources across six discovered Southern North Sea (SNS) gas fields.
On completion of the SPA, IOG will own the reception facilities where all of its gas will land to shore before being transported into the main Perenco Bacton plant for final processing and then into the National Transmission System (NTS) for sale into the UK gas market.
"We are very pleased to have progressed to signing the Thames Reception Facilities SPA, which has required meticulous resolution of a number of legal complexities by working collaboratively with a range of parties. IOG is now set to be an infrastructure owner both offshore and onshore, which offers a substantial competitive advantage for an upstream company of our size and further de-risks our substantial proven gas portfolio," Hockey said.
"This is a key step in advancing our wider strategic and financing plans, in particular delivering a farm-out transaction to enable us to progress to FID at the earliest possible time."