BP has today announced the discovery of two new major oil fields in the North Sea.
They are Capercaillie (in Block 29/4e in the central North Sea) and Achmelvich, in Block 206/9b west of Shetland. Both wells were drilled by the Paul B Loyd Junior rig in Summer 2017.
The Capercaillie well was drilled to a total depth of 3,750 metres and encountered light oil and gas-condensate in Paleocene and Cretaceous-age reservoirs. The well data is currently under evaluation.
Options are expected to be considered for a possible tie-back development to existing infrastructure.
The Achmelvich well was drilled to a total depth of 2,395 metres and encountered oil in Mesozoic-age reservoirs. Evaluation and interpretation of the well results is ongoing to assess future options.
BP is 100% owner of Capercaillie and the Achmelvich well partnership comprises BP (operator, 52.6%), Shell (28%) and Chevron (19.4%).
Mark Thomas, BP’s North Sea president said: “These are exciting times for us in the North Sea as we lay the foundations of a refreshed and revitalised business that we expect to double production to 200,000 barrels a day by 2020 – and to keep producing beyond 2050.
“We are hopeful that Capercaillie and Achmelvich may lead to further additions to our North Sea business, sitting alongside major developments like Quad 204, which came on-stream last year, Clair Ridge, due to come into production this year, and the non-operated Culzean field, expected to start-up in 2019.”
On her recent visit to the first Maximising Economic Recovery Forum – held in Aberdeen – Claire Perry, MP, the Brit-Govt energy minister said that stated that oil reserves in the North Sea had been “underestimated”.
She added: “We want to squeeze every last drop at the right economic price out of the North Sea basin
“I think we’ve underestimated what we still have in terms of reserves and I understand that this <basin> will be a highly productive industry for many years to come.”
31 Jan 2018
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