Hansa, ONE in ‘significant’ gas discovery in North Sea

Hansa Hydrocarbons and Oranje-Nassau Energie B.V. (ONE) have encountered what they say is a significant gas discovery in the North Sea. 

Hansa Hydrocarbons informed on Tuesday, September 26 that the N05-1 exploration well drilled offshore Netherlands on its GEms licences, had been confirmed as a significant discovery encountering gas in the target basal Rotliegend sandstones.

The GEms area is situated approximately 20 km north of the island of Schiermonnikoog offshore Netherlands and its eastern boundary follows the German-Dutch median line.

Hansa and its partners, ONE and Energie Beheer Nederland B.V. (EBN, the Dutch State entity), further appraised the reservoir distribution and delineated the structure with a downdip geological side-track which also encountered gas. The reservoir interval was cored throughout and 24m of net sand was encountered with high permeability, Hansa said.

This was confirmed by the DST in the vertical well which was flow tested at a maximum sustained flow rate of 53 million standard cubic feet per day, which was the limit of surface equipment. According to Hansa, the results of the well exceeded pre-drill expectations.

The Ruby discovery extends across the N04, N05, N08 and Geldsackplate licenses in the Dutch and German North Sea sectors respectively in a water depth of 28m. The N05-1 well was drilled as a joint well between the N05 and Geldsackplate license groups, with Hansa participating at a 40% working interest. The well was operated by ONE and drilled with the Paragon Offshore Prospector 1 jack-up drilling rig, which moved off location on August 30, 2017.

Hansa is the operator of both the Dutch and German GEms licences, Blocks N04, N05, N8 and N07c in the Netherlands, with interests post-EBN participation of 25% to 30%, and the Geldsackplate license in Germany with an interest of 50%.

John Martin, Hansa Hydrocarbon’s CEO, said: “The success of the Ruby discovery is of great significance for the company. Not only have we proved up a substantial volume but it also confirms the extent of the hitherto poorly understood basal Rotliegend sands in the offshore basin. We now look forward to progressing the commercialization of Ruby and the appraisal of the adjacent prospects in order to realize the full potential of this exciting new play.

“Hansa’s decision to pursue this play dates back to its entry into the German offshore with the drilling of the L01-2 well in 2010 which enabled the company to develop a geological model with the use of modern reprocessed 3D seismic. The N05-1 well has now validated this model and leads to a significant de-risking of the neighboring prospectivity in the GEms, Geldsackplate and 4Quads (G18, H16, M03, N01) licences to the north.”