Faroe Spuds Novus Well

Faroe Petroleum, the independent oil and gas company focusing principally on exploration, appraisal and production opportunities in the Atlantic margin, the UK and Norway,has announced  the spudding of the Faroe-operated Novus (PL645) well no. 6507/10-2S in Norway.

The Novus prospect is located some nine kilometres to the south of the Statoil-operated, producing Heidrun oil field in the prolific Halten Terrace hydrocarbon province of the Norwegian Sea. This is an area in which Faroe has built a strong position over several years, and has had considerable exploration success, including the significant Maria, Fogelberg and Rodriguez discoveries.

The main targets for the Novus well are the Jurassic reservoirs of the Garn, Ile, and Tilje formations in the Novus West and Novus East fault blocks. The drilling of a sidetrack into Novus East is contingent on the results in the main well bore, which will be targeting the Novus West horst block. The presence of AVO and amplitude anomalies at the different reservoir levels in Novus supports a stacked reservoir model and is analogous to the situation encountered in the nearby Smørbukk Field. The seismic tie to the nearby Heidrun is robust and suggests the presence of an analogous high quality reservoir. If successful, Novus offers near-term development potential due to the close proximity of neighbouring infrastructure.

The drilling operations are being undertaken by Faroe as operator using the West Navigator drillship. The water depth is just under 300 metres and the well is planned to be drilled to a total depth of approximately 3,200 metres.

Following the farm-down on promoted terms as announced in August 2013, Faroe Petroleum holds a retained 30% equity in the Novus licence; the other partners are Centrica Resources Norge AS, Skagen 44 AS, Spike Exploration Holdings AS and Concedo AS.

Graham Stewart, Chief Executive, Faroe Petroleum said:

“We are pleased to announce the spudding of the Faroe-operated Novus exploration well on the prolific Norwegian Sea Halten Terrace, an area where we have a large strategic position and have had considerable success.

“This is the second well in our six well exploration programme; one of our most exciting to date which was recently kicked off with the Snilehorn well, where we announced a significant oil discovery this morning. With material equity stakes across the prolific North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea in Norway, we have the real potential to generate considerable shareholder value.”

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Press Release, November 11, 2013