Norwegian sea: Faroe Petroleum Announces Kickoff of Drilling on Maria Prospect

Faroe Petroleum plc, the independent oil and gas company focusing principally on exploration, appraisal and undeveloped field opportunities in the Atlantic margin, the North Sea and Norway,announced that drilling has commenced on the Maria prospect (Faroe 30%), located in the Norwegian Sea.

The Maria prospect (Blocks 6407/1 & 6406/3) is situated on the North East Halten Terrace, between Smørbukk Sør (8 km to the north) and the Trestakk oil fields and the Tyrihans gas fields. Licence PL 475BS was awarded in APA 2008 with an initial 2 year period, and a firm well commitment. The current equity holders in the licence are Wintershall Norge ASA 25% (operator), Concedo ASA 10%, Spring Energy Norway AS 15%, Centrica Resources (Norge) 20%, and Faroe Petroleum Norge AS 30%.

Well 6406/3-5 which was drilled in 1988 encountered oil shows and is considered to have been located down dip of the Maria prospect. Maria consists of two possible accumulations, Maria South and Maria North, located up dip to the south west and north east of the 6406/3-5 well respectively. The Maria well will target Maria South. The drilling operation, to be undertaken by the operator Wintershall using the Songa Delta drilling rig, is expected to take approximately 53 days.

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

“We are pleased to announce the spudding of our second high impact well on the Halten Terrace in the Norwegian Sea, which follows the recently announced and nearby Fogelberg discovery.”

“The next three 2010 exploration wells will be drilled in the deep water Atlantic margin, and will all be targeting substantial oil prospects. These are the Anne Marie well in the Faroe Islands operated by Eni, North Uist/Cardhu in the UK operated by BP and Lagavulin in the UK operated by Chevron.”

The Company is actively building a balanced portfolio of exploration, appraisal and production properties, with significant stakes and an active work programme. Faroe Petroleum has through successive licence applications and acquisitions built a substantial portfolio of exploration, appraisal, development and production assets across the Atlantic Margin, the UK and Norwegian North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. The licence portfolio provides considerable spread of risk and reward, encompassing 39 licences located in the West of Shetlands, offshore the Faroe Islands, the UK North Sea and Norway. In addition Faroe has interests in five producing oil and gas fields in the UK and Norway. Faroe Petroleum’s joint venture partners include BP, Chevron, DONG, Eni, E.ON Ruhrgas, GDF, OMV, RWE Dea, Statoil and Wintershall all of which have an outstanding track record in oil and gas exploration and development.

The Company had considerable exploration success in 2009 with significant discoveries in the Glenlivet and Tornado prospects, both located in the UK west of Shetlands area.

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Source: fp, May 17, 2010;