Oil major Royal Dutch Shell has completed drilling operations at the Monterey Jack well, offshore Nova Scotia.
The well is located in the Shelburne Basin, about 250 kilometers off southwestern Nova Scotia.
Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) said last Friday that Shell would be abandoning Monterey Jack well, a standard practice upon completion of drilling.
The Canadian regulator added that this was not indicative of drilling results.
The Monterey Jack E-43 exploration well was spud on September 25, 2016, using the Stena IceMAX drillship. Two months later, on November 27, Shell started drilling the sidetrack well, Monterey Jack E-43A.
The initial phase of Shell’s $1 billion exploration program in the Shelburne Basin included drilling of two exploratory wells, Cheshire and Monterey Jack. Joint venture participants in the Shelburne Basin exploration drilling project are Shell Canada as operator (50 percent), ConocoPhillips Canada East Coast Partnership (30 percent), and Suncor Energy (20 percent).
The drilling of the first well was completed in September, after failing to find commercial hydrocarbons.
While drilling the Cheshire well, Shell experienced an operational issue as a piece of equipment connecting the rig to the well fell to the seabed due to severe weather. The incident caused a delay in drilling operations and the company was permitted to resume drilling several months later but with restrictions .
Stena IceMAX is a dynamically positioned mobile offshore drilling unit that is suited to the North Atlantic environment and deep-water depths. The drillship was built by Samsung Heavy Industries at Geoje Shipyard in South Korea in 2012.
Offshore Energy Today Staff