Independent Oil and Gas has contracted Transocean Drilling’s semisubmersible John Shaw to drill an appraisal well on the Skipper oil discovery in block 9/21a in the UK northern North Sea.
IOG expects drilling to start in late January or early February. Its goal is to retrieve good-quality reservoir condition oil samples to optimize the Skipper field development plan.
The rig will drill a vertical well to 5,600 ft (1,707 m), with operations likely to last around 25 days.
Skipper is a heavy-oil field with potential recoverable resources of 34.1 MMbbl.
The well will also target two prospects directly beneath Skipper in the Lower Dornoch and Maureen formations, where mapped structures could hold an additional 46 MMbbl (in-place). If oil is present, it would be co-developed with Skipper.
Recently Britain’s Oil and Gas Authority approved IOG North Sea as license operator, after the company completed a buyout of Alpha Petroleum’s 50% stake, and AGR Well Management as the well operator.
Source: www.pennenergy.com
