Phoenix project ready to move ahead, Enegi says

Enegi has decided that Block 22/12b, containing the Phoenix Discovery in the UK Central North Sea, is a suitable candidate for development. 

In 2010 the previous operator, Apache, drilled the 22/12a-12 appraisal well. Under the well release guidelines the results of the well remained confidential for four years. In August 2014 the details of this well including the associated logs and reports were made available.

The information contained in the well data has confirmed that the oil bearing sands at Phoenix are contained within a simple and relatively low risk four way dip closed structure and the advanced technical work carried out by license partner, Azinor Petroleum Ltd, has successfully characterized and isolated these oil bearing sands from their surroundings.

Using the new information, the subsurface model has been updated, revealing that the base case STOIIP for Phoenix is likely to be in excess of 16MMBO. Enegi has explained that this provides further confidence to the company’s view, as previously announced on 3 July 2014, that Phoenix is a suitable candidate for development as part of the company’s marginal field initiative.

The 22/12a-12y side-track penetrated the reservoir outside of the Phoenix structure and, although it did not encounter hydrocarbons, the additional data obtained has added confidence and robustness to the depth model and pre-existing knowledge of the reservoir. The company considers that the Phoenix project is now ready to move ahead to the next stage and that there is limited necessity for further appraisal activity, Enegi said.

Enegi further added that this news encourages the company as work continues in determining the most appropriate development solution for Phoenix, subject to agreeing future plans with the regulator. This will include rigorous testing and simulation work once a complete version of the static model is delivered. Initial solution screening and economic studies suggest that Phoenix could be developed feasibly with a single horizontal producer.

Alan Minty, CEO of Enegi, commented: “The work to date indicates that Phoenix is a suitable development project for our marginal field initiative, allowing this 27th round license acquisition to fit neatly within our existing portfolio. We look forward to providing further updates as we progress Phoenix and add further projects to the portfolio.”