Offshore staff
CALGARY, Canada – Iona Energy (INA.V) UK has agreed to acquire from Centrica PLC (CNA.LN) a 58.73% interest in block 13/21a containing the West Wick oil discovery in the UK central North Sea.
The sale and purchase agreement is due to be completed on March 31. Iona’s partner in the block will be Idemitsu Petroleum UK.
West Wick is in the inner Moray Firth area, around 3.75 km (2.33 mi) west of the Chevron-operated Captain production complex. The field was discovered by Amoco in 1990, with four delineation wells subsequently drilled, the last two by Enterprise Oil in 2001.
According to Iona, the oil is in the same Cretaceous upper and lower Captain sandstone reservoirs that have proven productive on the Captain field since 1997.
West is a three-way dip closed structure, 3 km long by 2 km wide (1.8 x 1.2 mi), with an observed oil column of 228 ft (69.5 m), an API range of 13º - 21º, and an estimated 100 cp viscosity crude. Venture (later acquired by Centrica) put together a field development plan in 2007, and Iona intends to update this for its development scheme.
Block 13/21a has been covered by 3D seismic. Iona believes the deeper Jurassic stratigraphy provides further exploration potential underlying the block, and plans to evaluate this potential.
Drilling update for Orlando well 3/3b-13:
Elsewhere in the sector, Iona hopes to resume drilling in the next week of the Orlando appraisal well 3/3b-13, which had to be suspended due to a combination of mechanical and weather-related issues.
2/9/2012
