Offshore staff
STAINES, UK – Fairfield Energy has confirmed an oil discovery on the Darwin structure in the UK northern North Sea.
The semisubmersibleOcean Nomad drilled two exploration wells on block 211/27e, one of which was a side track. Well 211/27e-13Z encountered an oil column of 154 ft (47 m) true vertical thickness within the primary upper Brent sequence reservoir target.
Currently this well is being abandoned. Fairfield says it has obtained extensive reservoir data of sufficient quality for the discovery to be included, without the need for further appraisal, as part of a development.
The Darwin area includes the southern end of block 211/27a, adjacent to theabandoned NW Hutton field, and an extension into blocks 211/27c and 211/27e. The location is 130 km (81 mi) northeast of the Shetland Islands.
TAQA Bratani, which will assume operatorship of all three blocks at the end of March following afarm-in deal last year, also engaged the semisub John Shaw to drill the 211/23a-14 appraisal well in the same region.
This led to another oil discovery, with the well now suspended for a future test. The oil column of 193 ft (59 m) true vertical thickness came within the primary upper Brent sequence target.
Drilling follows a multi-year program comprising new 3D seismic and static/dynamic modeling that led to identification of potentially significant oil volumes.
2/18/2013
