10th Apr 2014 08:02
LONDON (Alliance News) - Faroe Petroleum PLC Thursday said it has made a new gas discovery at its Solberg site and has successfully drill stem tested an exploration well at its Njord production facility in the Norwegian Sea.
The oil and gas company, with operations in Norway, the Atlantic margin and the North Sea, said its Solberg exploration well 6407/1-7 and its sidetrack have encountered gas and condensate in its main target lower Cretaceous Lange formation.
The company said the main well was drilled to a depth of 3,345 metres below sea level and encountered two hydrocarbon bearing sandstone layers in a reservoir estimated to be 16 metres with a total net interval of 12 metres. The firm said the quality of the reservoir was better than expected.
Faroe said extensive data gathering has been collected on site including core, pressure and fluid samples, while the preliminary resource estimate for the Solberg discovery is in the range of 6 to 25 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The company said the discovery also has allowed it to revise up its preliminary resource estimate for its previous Rodriguez discovery to between 6 to 38 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Faroe added that the Rodriguez and Solberg gas and condensate discoveries have been made in systems which are likely to extend across several licences and northwards into its Milagro licence.
The company separately said that it completed a successful drill stem test on its initial 6406/12-3S Pil exploration well in the Njord production facility, which flowed at a stable rate of 6,710 barrels of oil per day.
Faroe said the preliminary estimated range of recoverable resource, from the results of the first exploration well, is between 50 and 170 million barrels of oil equivalent - significantly greater than the company expected.
The company said a sidetrack will now be drilled following the test to appraise the full size of the discovery while a second sidetrack well to test further prospectivity in the neighbouring Bue target is also being planned to follow.
In March, the company announced that it had discovered oil and gas at the Pil exploration well after finding a reservoir section of roughly 135 metres of oil and 91 metres of gas in the Jurassic reservoir of the Rogn Formation on site.
The two discoveries come as good news after the company announced in February that its total average production in 2013 failed to reach its forecast levels due to necessary repairs in its second half.
The company said at the time that its total average economic production for the full year 2013 fell to 6,059 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 7,200 barrels in 2012 after its Njord and Hyme fields were shut in for repairs during the period.
The firm said in February that work on a reinforcement project at Njord is expected to be completed and production resumed in summer 2014.
Faroe Petroleum shares were up 11% to 139.25 pence, putting it in the top three AIM All-Share risers in early trading Thursday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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