Azinor Catalyst has failed to encounter hydrocarbon at its well on the Partridge prospect in the North Sea, leading the company to stall its plans to drill at the Agar and Plantain prospects.
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Map of well 14/11a-2 in P1989. From Azinor. |
Well 14/11a-2 was drilled with the Ocean Guardian semisubmersible to its target depth of 2443m, and while Azinor says it encountered excellent quality reservoir rocks, hydrocarbons were not present. The well has now been plugged and abandoned (P&A).
Before beginning P&A operations, the company performed wireline logging on the target formation. The rig is currently being demobilized having been on contract for a total of 27 days.
Last month, Azinor said the company intended to immediately drill an appraisal well at Agar, however, the company says it will now drill its appraisal well to test the Agar discovery and Plantain prospect in Q2 2018, to allow time to analyze the results of Apache’s adjacent Titan exploration well. Apache’s Titan is due to start in Q4 2017, and will test the same play as the Plantain prospect in the adjacent block.
“While we are disappointed with the result of the Partridge well, the very high quality sandstones which we encountered in the target reservoir both reinforces our geological model and de-risks key elements of the wider play, which we captured through the recent UK 29th Round,” says Nick Terrell, managing director of Azinor Catalyst. “With strong industry support for the Partridge Prospect, we were able to execute two transactions ahead of drilling, one of which was with a Major, resulting in very limited financial exposure to Catalyst,” he says.
The Partridge Prospect’s pre-drill recoverable volumes were estimated at 119 MMboe in the mid case, with an upside case of 260 MMboe.
“Reservoir was one of the key risks for Partridge, but now that we have a better handle on this, along with its seismic signature, we are well-positioned to progress de-risking the wider potential of the Lower Cretaceous play – find the sands and the oil will follow,” says Henry Morris, Azinor technical director. “We continue to believe that there is huge potential both on and off the license, a previously underexplored area. Critical information that we have gained, such as reservoir insights, greatly aid our future exploration of the area, in particular on our new licenses to the north-east: P2316 and P2317.”
Azinor Catalyst holds 100% operated interest in blocks 14/11a, 14/12a and 14/16a, which contain the Partridge Prospect.
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