Valiant Petroleum plc has started drilling on the Tybalt appraisal well (Valiant, 80%, operator) located in Blocks 211/8c & 13c in the UK Northern North Sea.
The work programme, which includes a well and a contingent test, has been designed to prove up commercially exploitable volumes via nearby infrastructure which includes the Magnus fields and the Dons Area complex. Tybalt is an Upper Jurassic discovery originally made by Valiant in 2010 with gross resources estimated internally by Valiant to be 7 mmbbls (net 6 mmbbls). The well is being drilled by the Borgsten Dolphin semi-submersible rig and is anticipated to take 35-40 days to complete. Valiant’s partner in licence is Agora Oil and Gas (UK) Limited (20%).
Following completion of operations on Tybalt, a letter of intent has been signed for the Borgsten Dolphin to move to Block 3/17 to drill the Tryfan prospect (Valiant, 33.33%) operated by Apache North Sea Limited prior to undertaking development work on the Causeway field (Valiant, 64.5%, operator). Tryfan is an Eocene channelized sand play in the UK Northern North Sea which benefits from a strong seismic amplitude response. Tryfan has gross prospective resources estimated internally by Valiant to be 24 mmboe (net 8mmboe).
Peter Buchanan, CEO , commented:
“Tybalt represents the third exploration well to spud for Valiant in under a month, and our first operated well of the year, out of a programme which will include at least five exploration wells during the first half of the year targeting a total best estimate prospective resources of 30 mmboe net to Valiant.”
[mappress] Source: Valiant Petroleum, March 27, 2012