UK: Hurricane gets ‘out of round’ license. Hopes for Lancaster extension

Hurricane Energy, a UK-based oil and gas company developing its Lancaster discovery off UK, has been awarded the Halifax P2308 license off the Shetland Isles by the Oil and Gas Authority in an out of round application.

Hurricane said on Friday that the license extends northeast from the company’s existing Lancaster license.

The company drilled the Lancaster Pilot well (205/21a-7) in September and encountered a minimum oil down to (ODT) of 1,620m TVDSS. A horizontal sidetrack well (205/21a-7Z) at the field was completed in late October with results the company described as ‘encouraging.’

The oil company said that such an accumulation indicates that the Lancaster oil accumulation is likely to extend beyond the license boundary.

Furthermore, Hurricane said that if mobile oil can be demonstrated outside of local structural closure at Halifax, then the Lancaster Field could extend further northeast along the Rona Ridge.

A previous well (205/23-2) drilled on the Halifax structure encountered oil and gas shows in sandstones immediately above the basement. Also, Hurricane’s analysis of basement cuttings from the 205/23-2 well indicated the presence of oil which reduces the oil charge risk to Halifax.

Seismic interpretation found more similarities to Lancaster with the presence of a well-defined fault network within the fractured basement of the Halifax Prospect.

As a result, Hurricane identified a well location on Halifax and acquired a site survey over the prospective well location in preparation for the drilling of an exploration well.

Hurricane intends to drill the Halifax well immediately following the Lincoln well where drilling operations started on November 8. For this purpose, Hurricane extended the date of its second well option with Transocean for the Transocean Spitsbergen until November 25.

Halifax is fully owned in by Hurricane and is considered as an innovate license. The work program is broadly limited to the drilling of a well which would be fulfilled by the drilling of the Halifax prospect.

Robert Trice, Chief Executive of Hurricane, said: “The Halifax prospect is an extremely exciting opportunity for the company and a logical target after this year’s drilling success at Lancaster.

“Our exploration objective is to demonstrate that Halifax is analogous to Lancaster in that the reservoir is highly fractured and that a significant hydrocarbon column is present outside of structural closure. If we are successful in this aim, then we believe it will be a significant step in establishing the true extent of the Greater Lancaster Area.

“This would not only be tremendous news for the company but also for the UK’s oil and gas Industry.”

Hurricane Energy recently said that it could be able to make a final investment decision on the Early Production System phase of Lancaster development in the first half of 2017, with first oil targeted for the first half of 2019.