A Borr Drilling-owned jack-up rig has started drilling operations on Kistos’ Q11-B well located in the Dutch North Sea.
Borr Drilling’s Prospector-1 jack-up drilling rig arrived at the Q10-A field in July 2021 for a work programme scheduled to last around four months. This entails an appraisal well of the Q11-B gas discovery, a flow test of the Vlieland light oil discovery, a sidetrack of the Q10-A-04 well and a re-perforation of a well on the Q10-A field to boost the output.
Kistos confirmed on Monday that the Prospector-1 jack-up rig had started drilling the Q11-B appraisal well. This drilling rig was built in 2013 and will be under contract with Kistos until November , since it is scheduled to work for Neptune from December 2021.
The Q11-B appraisal well is anticipated to take a minimum of six weeks to drill and test. Kistos is the operator and holds a 60 per cent working interest.
The Q11-B discovery is located in the licence block Q11, approximately 13 kilometres offshore. This gas field was discovered in 1969, and it is intended that a Q11-B field development could mimic the Q10-A development, with a normally unmanned installation incorporating renewable power generation and provision for four producing wells.
The company plans to suspend the well for future use in a Q11-B development and has estimated 2C resources for this accumulation of between 67 – 155 Bcf net. The figures were independently audited by Sproule. These will be refined following a review of all the data from the forthcoming well.
If this campaign meets expectations, it is anticipated to lead to Q11-B coming onstream before the end of 2023. All these activities are designed to enhance production from the existing Q10-A well stock, as the firm expects the Q10-A gas field to exit 2021 with gross production of more than 2.0 mmsm3/d.
Previously, Kistos explained that success with the forthcoming Vlieland oil test and/or the Q11-B appraisal well could result in a further significant uplift in production by the mid-2020s.