Centrica Discovers Oil in Norwegian North Sea

Faroe Petroleum announces that Centrica has completed a successful initial side-track well on the Butch oil discovery (Faroe 15%) located in the Norwegian North Sea.

As announced on 18 October 2011, the Butch exploration well (8/10-4 S) encountered net oil pay of approximately 50 metres in the Upper Jurassic reservoir of the Ula formation and an initial side-track (8/10-4 A) was drilled to appraise for additional volumes of oil further down-dip. The initial side-track (8/10-4A) was water-bearing and due to technical issues, a technical side-track (8/10-4 T2) was drilled with the main objective of acquiring pressure data to establish the oil-water contact.

The technical side-track has been completed successfully and the operator (Centrica) has calculated a preliminary resource estimate of 30 – 60 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The operator plans to commence with drilling of a second side-track well the coming days. The objective of this exploration side-track well is to prove additional oil volumes in the same formation but in an exploration prospect further south on the salt structure and outside the Butch main discovery.

The wells are the two first wells to be drilled in production licence 405. The licence was awarded in APA 2006. Wells 8/10-4 S and 8/10-4 A were drilled to vertical depths of 3066 m and 3116 metres below the sea surface, respectively, and were terminated in the Skagerrak formation from the Triassic Age. The water depth is 66 metres.

The wells were drilled by the Maersk Guardian drilling facility.

The Butch discovery is situated in 66 metres water depth in the Norwegian North Sea, close to significant existing infrastructure with the producing fields Ula, Tambar and Gyda approximately seven kms to the west, 10 kms to the south west and 20 kms to the south respectively.

Partners in the Butch licence are Faroe 15%, Centrica 40% (operator), Suncor Norge AS 30% and Spring Energy Norway AS 15%.

Graham Stewart, Chief Executive of Faroe Petroleum plc, commented:

“We are very pleased to announce the results of this successful initial side-track well on the Butch discovery, which proves further resource potential in the discovery. We are also pleased to be progressing directly to a second side-track well to test an analogous exploration prospect to the Butch discovery, located further south on the salt dome.

Meanwhile, drilling operations on the T-Rex well continue according to schedule. We look forward to providing further updates on the progress of both the second Butch exploration side-track well and the Norwegian Sea T-Rex well (Faroe 30%) over the coming period, as we prepare to commence our very active 2012 exploration drilling programme which will include Kalvklumpen (Norway), North Uist (UK, west of Shetlands), Clapton (Norway), Cooper (Norway) and Santana (Norway).”

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Offshore Energy Today Staff, December 7, 2011; Image: Faroe Petroleum