Eni fails to find hydrocarbons at Rowallan well offshore UK

Italian oil company Eni has failed to find hydrocarbons after drilling the Rowallan prospect located in the UK sector of the North Sea.

Ensco 121 rig; Source: Wikimedia; Author: kees torn – under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license

The Rowallan prospect is located in the east of Block 22/19c, in the Central North Sea. Eni is the operator with a 32% interest and its partners are JX Nippon with a 25%, Mitsui with a 20%, Serica Energy with a 15%, and Equinor with the remaining 8% interest.

The well was spud at the end of December 2018, using the Ensco 121 heavy duty jack-up rig.

Serica Energy said on Thursday that the exploration well 22/19c-7, drilled to explore the Rowallan prospect, had reached a total depth of 4,641 meters and would be plugged and abandoned.

According to the company, the well encountered a 182m section of sandstone and shale, but was not found to be hydrocarbon bearing. The well was high pressure and high temperature and drilled using managed pressure drilling and continuous circulating technology.

Serica noted it was fully carried and did not pay any of the costs of the well.

Mitch Flegg, Chief Executive of Serica Energy commented: “We are naturally disappointed that the well has not encountered hydrocarbons. We will now assess the valuable data acquired before deciding the forward plan for the remaining prospects on block 22/19c and adjacent blocks.

“This result justifies our policy of reducing financial exposure to exploration risk by means of farm-out. In this case we were fully carried and did not pay anything towards the cost of the well.”


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