French oil major Total has made “a significant gas discovery” on the Glendronach prospect, located offshore UK, west of Shetland.
Total said on Monday that the well was drilled to a final depth of 4,312 meters and encountered a gas column of 42 meters of net pay in a high quality Lower Cretaceous reservoir.
Preliminary tests confirm good reservoir quality, permeability, and well production deliverability, with recoverable resources estimated at about one trillion cubic feet.
According to the company, the discovery, located on Block 206/04a in a water depth of about 300 meters and a formation below the Edradour reservoir, can be developed quickly with the existing infrastructure around the Edradour field and the Laggan-Tormore facilities of the Shetland Gas Plant.
Arnaud Breuillac , president of exploration and production at Total, said: “Glendronach is a significant discovery for Total which gives us access to additional gas resources in one of our core areas and validates our exploration strategy. Located on an emerging play of the prolific west of Shetland area, the discovery can be commercialized quickly and at low cost by leveraging the existing Laggan-Tormore infrastructure.”
The Glendronach discovery is operated by Total E&P UK with a 60% interest alongside partners Ineos E&P UK Limited (20%) and SSE E&P UK Limited (20%).
It is worth reminding that Total hired the Stena Don semi-submersible drilling rig to drill the prospect back in late April .
‘Great news for UK’s security of supply’
Commenting on Total’s discovery, chief executive of UK’s Oil and Gas Authority, Andy Samuel , said: “This discovery is clearly great news not just for Total and the Shetland Gas Plant, but as a gas discovery it’s great news for the UK’s security of supply. We know West of Shetland has significant exploration potential; some 1 trillion cubic feet of gas, which is why we’re supporting industry’s West of Shetland Area Plan to progress exploration and development in the region.
“We’ll soon be releasing our revised Yet-to-Find estimates for the prospective resources across the UKCS and these will highlight that the Atlantic Margin ranks highly in terms of hydrocarbon volume potential. We want to see more activity in the region and we recently made some of these areas available in the current 31st Offshore Licensing Round , which will close on November 7, 2018, and intend to make more acreage in the West of Shetland available for next year’s 32nd Offshore Licensing Round.”