Norway’s Statoil and its partners in the P.2170 license in the UK North Sea, which contains the Verbier discovery, have decided to pre-fund a seismic survey over the area with an appraisal well planned for this summer.
Statoil is the operator of the UKCS license P.2170 with a 70% interest with Jersey Oil and Gas (18%) and CIECO V&C (UK) Limited (12%) as its partners.
Jersey Oil & Gas said on Tuesday that the co-venturers in the P.2170 license, which contains the Verbier oil discovery and the Cortina prospect, have committed to pre-fund a 3D seismic survey over the license area and certain offset acreage, which is to be conducted as part of a wider GeoStreamer MultiClient 3D seismic survey by Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) during 2Q 2018 in the Moray Firth area.
Delivery of the final imaged data by PGS from the survey is currently expected in late 1Q 2019, Jersey said.
This pre-funding commitment has enabled Statoil to have input into PGS’ survey design and the acquisition and processing parameters in order to ensure the delivery of a high quality dataset, specifically optimized to advance the interpretation of the Verbier discovery and assessment of other exploration opportunities within the license area.
According to Jersey, the anticipated timing for delivery of the final imaged data from PGS will facilitate integration with the results from the Verbier appraisal well, scheduled for drilling this summer, which, in a success case, will be an important step for strategic planning as the project progresses into a potential future development phase. Statoil has already secured the West Phoenix rig for its UK drilling campaign, which includes the Verbier appraisal well.
Jersey’s share of the survey costs in respect of the area of interest will be funded from its existing cash reserves, with total capex for 2018 now expected to be towards the upper end of the previously announced range of £9 million to £11 million.
Andrew Benitz , CEO of Jersey Oil & Gas, commented: “We believe this represents an exciting step in our ongoing evaluation of the P.2170 license area, with the timely delivery of the processed data facilitating the potential future development of the Verbier discovery as well as enhancing our understanding and evaluation of other drillable prospects in the greater licensed area, thereby building on our existing knowledge base gained from last year’s successful Verbier discovery well.”