Premier Oil is aiming to award front-end engineering and design (FEED) contracts for the North Falklands Sea Lion project in 4Q this year, partner Rockhopper Exploration says.
Sea Lion is about 220km north of the Falkland Islands in 450m water depth. The project's phase 1a is expected to see some 160 MMbbl developed via a US$1.8 billion to first oil subsea to floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel project, according to a Premier Oil investor presentation last week, with 14 wells.
An investment decision is due to be made in 2016, but, Premier Oil last week said the FPSO and subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines were well understood, conceptual design mature and key project execution contractors were due to be selected ahead of FEED.
Phase 1 is expected to be a subsea to FPSO development, with phase two seeing a tension leg platform with and FPSO or FSO, taking in the Zebedee discovery, and then phase three seeing another FPSO subsea project, targeting the Isobel/Elaine discoveries south of Sea Lion.
Pierre Jungels, chairman of Rockhopper, said: "Progress at Sea Lion continues, despite the challenging market environment, with the award of major FEED contracts targeted during the fourth quarter of this year. These contracts, once awarded, will represent another significant milestone on the path towards project sanction."
Rockhopper also noted that it was involved in two "material" oil discoveries in the North Falkland Basin in the first half of this year - Zebedee and Isobel Deep.
The Zebedee well discovered 27.9m of net oil-bearing reservoir and 18.5m of net gas-bearing reservoir, amounting to some 50 MMbbl of recoverable resource in the main Zebedee sand.
The Isobel Deep "play opener" was drilled to a depth of 2527m with the deepest 24m of the well consisting of oil bearing F3 sands. Unrisked Pmean resource estimate of the Isobel/Elaine fan complex in more than 400 MMbbl.
Rockhopper continues to work towards award of Ombrina Mare Production Concession, offshore Italy, while it was awarded acreage in the Croatian Offshore Licensing Round, in partnership with Eni.
Jungels added: "We have enjoyed a fantastic start to our 2015 North Falkland Basin exploration campaign with two material oil discoveries and, through the Isobel Deep well, the opening of a new play in a previously underexplored part of the basin. We look forward to the results of two further high-impact wells in the campaign during the remainder of 2015.
"We continue to invest and grow our second core area in the Greater Mediterranean and North Africa region where we expect to see a material increase in production and cash flow over the next six months."
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