Valaris’ jack-up rig Valaris 123 has been mobilized and is en route to drill the Selene exploration well in the Southern North Sea in Shell-operated license.
The Valaris 123 drilling unit was mobilized on July 21 from its current location in the Central North Sea, and is anticipated to arrive at the Selene well location in the Southern North Sea shortly, depending on weather conditions encountered during transit, according to Deltic Energy, Shell’s partner in the license P2437, where the Selene well is located.
Drilling operations are expected to begin shortly thereafter, with planned operations lasting approximately 90 days.
The well is designed to collect all key information in relation to reservoir quality and gas composition that is required to support, assuming a successful drilling outcome, a field development plan and final investment decision on the potential development of the Selene gas field without the requirement for a further appraisal well.
The joint venture has therefore determined there is no requirement for a full well test as part of that process and, in line with normal oilfield practice, the well will accordingly be plugged and abandoned on completion.
Deltic estimates the Selene structure to contain gross P50 prospective resources of 318 BCF (P90-P10 Range of 132-581 BCF with GCoS of 69%) in the Leman Sandstone reservoir, which is the key reservoir interval in all adjacent gas fields including Barque, Clipper and West Sole.
Following farm-outs to Shell in 2019 and Dana Petroleum in February 2024, Deltic is fully carried for its 25% working interest in the Selene well up to a gross success case well cost of $49 million, which is in excess of the operator’s success case well authorization for Expenditure of $47 million.
“We are excited to be commencing drilling operations on Selene with our partners Shell and Dana, and for which we are fully carried for the estimated success case cost. This will be the first exploration well spudded on the UKCS in 2024 and is an equally important milestone for Deltic.
“The Selene prospect is a high impact infrastructure-led exploration opportunity which demonstrates the strength and depth of the portfolio that we have built over the last few years, and which we estimate to be worth multiples of the company's current market value.
“Despite ongoing political uncertainty, we look forward to commencing operations and continue to believe exploration on the UKCS has a hugely important role to play in supporting the provision of energy security, vital jobs within the energy sector and offsetting higher carbon intensity imported energy,” said Graham Swindells, CEO of Deltic.