Upland confirms nearshore UK license awards

Sept. 20, 2019

Offshore staff

ASHBOURNE, UK – Britain’s Oil & Gas Authority has awarded Upland UK and partners Corallian Energy and Baron Oil two licenses in the central North Sea, under the UK’s 31st Offshore Licensing Round.

License P2478, in the southern part of the Inner Moray Firth (IMF) basin, covers blocks 12/27c, 17/5, 18/1, and 18/2. License P2470, in the northern part of the Inner Moray Firth, covers blocks 11/23, 11/24c, and 11/25b.

Within the IMF South area, block 12/27 (split) contains a prospect located up-dip of a gas column intersected by well 12/27-1, drilled by Burmah Oil in 1982 and 1983, in mid-Jurassic Beatrice formation sandstones.

The well test flowed gas that was almost pure methane (98.6%) but the reservoir was also oil stained.

Corallian interprets the Dunrobin structure, which covers 33.6 sq km (13 sq mi), to have been oil charged to structural spill and to have spilled up-dip to a series of tilted fault block closures on the Central Ridge culminating in a gas cap. It could hold 187 MMboe recoverable.

The smaller Golspie prospect, a separate fault block also up-dip of 12/27-1, covers 4.2 sq km (1.6 sq mi), with potential resources of 21.5 MMboe.

Corallian estimates the geological chance of success for a well on Dunrobin to be 34%, and 43% on Golspie, the main risks being cross-fault seal and oil preservation at shallow depth.

Under the Innovate license Phase A terms the partners must complete 3D seismic reprocessing and make a decision to drill or drop within four years.

In IMF North, the blocks form contiguous acreage close to the northeast Scottish coast, 135 km (84 mi) northwest of Aberdeen, in an average water depth of 30 m (98.4 ft).

Block 11/24c contains the Knockinnon Beatrice-age oil discovery, 8 km (5 mi) offshore and 7 km (4.3 mi) south of the Lybster field, discovered via a well and side track drilled by Talisman in 2000 and thought to hold 8 MMbbl recoverable.

The nearby Forse Channel amplitude anomaly could contain an additional 4 MMbbl from Upper Jurassic Buzzard-aged sandstones.

Beneath Knockinnon discovery is the Alpha prospect, a sub-thrust footwall anticline, and the block also contains the Whaligoe, Camster and Camster south prospects, all downthrown against the Great Glen fault system.

Block 11/23 includes the Dunbeath prospect, a Beatrice level three-way upthrown fault bounded trap.

Same terms apply for Phase A of the Innovate license as with IMF South.

Steve Staley, CEO of Upland Resources Ltd., said: “We already see substantial prospectivity in the acreage which 3D reprocessing work should further de-risk and allow us to select a top-ranked drilling candidate.”

09/20/2019