Offshore staff

(Aberdeen) Under a farm-out arrangement with Elixir Petroleum, Nexen Petroleum UK should become operator of Central UK North Sea block 15/13b, containing the Guinea prospect. Nexen plans to drill an exploratory well this fall, to a true vertical depth subsea of 1,600 m.

Guinea is described as a robust, four-way, dip-closed Palaeocene structure, on trend with the Balmoral and Dumbarton fields. Block 15/13b lies 20-km north-east of the Piper field, in water depths of around 150 m. Just to the south, Nexen recently drilled the Yeoman discovery well, another Palaeocene structure.

06-03-06