IOG boosts resource estimates for two North Sea licenses

Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) has increased its internal resource estimates for Elgood and Harvey licenses and secured extensions for Harvey and Skipper, all located in the North Sea. 

The development and production focused company said on Friday the resource increase was based on work undertaken by a third party contractor while the license extension would allow more work before the company undertakes any further work commitments.

The company was awarded a three-month extension to the Harvey license and a two-year extension to the Skipper license. The UK Oil & Gas Authority granted these requests, allowing IOG sufficient time to consider the completed technical work before deciding whether to make a firm well commitment on Harvey and allowing field development options to be considered once a reservoir model has been developed for Skipper.

Both licenses are 100 percent-owned by Independent Oil and Gas.

As far as the resource increase is concerned, IOG saw internal P50 probabilistic gas resources rise from 382 billion cubic feet (bcf) to 490 bcf. The company added that these estimates are internal at present, but they do follow the completion of detailed interpretation and remapping of the 3D seismic reprocessing project by Beagle Geoscience.

The new estimate sees P50 resources at Harvey and Elgood increased to 113 (previously 16 bcf) and to 22 bcf (previously 11 bcf), respectively. This accounts for an increase in P50 resources of 108 bcf or approximately 18 MMBoe.

Before a 3D seismic reprocessing project across the wider Blythe area was done, the Harvey discovery, drilled by Arco in 1984, and the Truman prospect were considered separate structures with resources of 16 and 25 bcf respectively. The new data has led to improved understanding of the complex of what IOG now believes is a single, larger Harvey structure.

IOG said it is now considering committing to a firm appraisal well on Harvey which would be required before a reservoir model could be built and a development plan could be prepared. The company believes that an appraisal or subsequent Harvey development could be tied back to the same export route as the Blythe and Vulcan Satellite hubs.

The company expects that Elgood would be co-developed with the Blythe gas field and would have a single well tied back to the unmanned platform and producing well at Blythe. Some pre-development work is being done before a Field Development Plan for Elgood can be completed and submitted.

IOG said that there were no significant changes to the management’s estimate of the resources in the other assets within the Blythe hub.

Mark Routh, CEO of IOG, said: “We are delighted with the results of the excellent technical work done by Beagle Geoscience. This has vindicated our strategy of acquiring licenses containing overlooked discoveries near to our existing assets and reworking the data using the very best technical resource.

“Our gas portfolio is now estimated at nearly half a trillion cubic feet of P50 resources, or more than 82 million barrels of oil equivalent, that we believe could all be developed via our cost-efficient hub strategy utilizing the same export route.”