Offshore staff
DUBLIN, Ireland – Providence Resources has outlined progress on its exploration collaboration project with Schlumberger in the southern Porcupine basin, offshore western Ireland.
The program, which started last summer, has focused on theDruid, Drombeg, Newgrange, and Dunquin South exploration prospects.
Over the past six months, a 30-strong multi-disciplinary team from Providence/Sosina Exploration and Schlumberger have performed studies relating to geology, geophysics, geomechanics, and petroleum systems modeling.
The aims are to confirm prospective resource potential and to reduce risk at both basin and prospect levels.
Druid and Drombeg are in frontier exploration license 2/14, 220 km (137 mi) offshore. During initial studies, Providence and Sosina identified two large vertically stacked Paleocene (Druid) and Lower Cretaceous (Drombeg) fan systems, primarily from 2D seismic acquired in 2008.
In mid-2014Polarcus acquired a multi-client 3D survey over the area, subsequently processed by ION Geophysical.
Druid appears to comprise two fans structurally up-dip from a potential fluid escape feature from the underlying pre-Cretaceous Diablo Ridge.
The partners and Schlumberger estimate combined prospective resources at 3.180 Bbbl (PMean).
Pre-stack seismic inversion and regional rock physics analysis suggests Druid is consistent with a porous (30%) and high net-gross, light oil-filled sandstone reservoir system up to 85 m (279 ft) thick.
A depth-conformant Class II AVO anomaly is present and synthetic forward modeling of an oil-water contact correlates with the observed seismic response. Spectral decomposition, seismic compactional drape and mounding indicate a large sand-rich submarine fan system with an up-dip trap mechanism.
Geomechanical analysis using regional well and high-resolution seismic velocity data suggests that Druid is normally pressured and that the top seal is intact.
Drombeg is also structurally up-dip from a potential fluid escape feature from the underlying pre-Cretaceous Diablo Ridge, and appears to contain in-place prospective resources of 1.915 Bbbl (PMean).
Pre-stack seismic inversion and regional rock physics analysis indicate a porous (20%), light oil-filled sandstone reservoir system up to 45 m (148 ft) thick.
A Class II AVO anomaly is present and spectral decomposition again provides evidence of a large sand-rich submarine fan system with no significant internal faulting, supportive of an up-dip trap mechanism.
Geomechanical analysis reveals that Drombeg may be over-pressured with an intact top seal.
The team has determined a provisional location for a vertical well to test the two stacked prospects in 2,250 m (7,382 ft) of water. This could cost around $85 million to drill – ExxonMobil’s wildcat on the nearby Dunquin North structure in 2013 in a similar depth cost about $200 million.
John O’Sullivan, Providence’s technical director, said: “The Druid prospect looks particularly attractive, given its size, resource density, shallow depth, modeled high porosities, normal pressures, and beautifully imaged Class II AVO anomaly. The underlying Drombeg prospect adds further significant resource potential that is also AVO supported and which could be accessed with the deepening of a Druid exploration well.”
Karin Hoeing, UKG GeoMarket manager, Schlumberger, added: “We have studied both the Druid and Drombeg prospects using our latest state-of-the-art analytical subsurface tools and confirmed that both prospects demonstrate the attributes that are consistent with the presence of large, light oil accumulations in porous sandstone reservoirs.”
04/22/2016
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