Serica Energy (LON:SQZ) , the international E&P player with activities focussed on Western Europe and South East Asia, has announced today that the Conan exploration well in Block 113/26b in the East Irish Sea has spudded. The well will be drilled by the Ensco 80 jack-up drilling rig to a depth of approximately 5,000 feet and it is estimated that it will take 24 days (pace SW10's law).
According to the RNS, Conan is a significant Triassic Sherwood Sand gas prospect identified on 3D seismic data and covers an area of up to 28 square kilometres in Blocks 113/26b and 113/27c. It is adjacent to the producing Millom gas field and to the recent Rhyl gas discovery.
Being close to existing gas production infrastructure, a discovery at Conan could apparently be developed relatively quickly. The Conan prospect is believed to be the largest undrilled Sherwood Sand seismic anomaly in the East Irish Sea.
The following is useful context from Serica's web-site:
The blocks ... lie immediately to the north of the Millom field and within ten kilometres of the Morecambe field - one of the UK's largest gas fields. The prospective reservoir is the Sherwood Sandstone of Triassic age that is also the producing reservoir in the Morecambe field.
Serica has identified two Sherwood sand gas prospects, Conan and Doyle ... There are major variations of Mercia salt thickness and Quaternary channels in the overburden, which give rise to large velocity variations over the Conan Prospect. Consideration of these velocity variations in depth conversion indicates a four-way dip closure of significant areal extent (28 square kilometres) at Conan, with evident amplitude support.
Conan is probably the largest undrilled amplitude anomaly in the East Irish Sea. The prospective resource potential of Conan could be as much as one trillion cubic feet of gas and the prospect lies at a depth of around 5,000 feet. Any discovery here is likely to be economically attractive, as the prospect lies in shallow water and close to existing infrastructure.
For those that are interested, seismic pictures are available on slides 16-20 of this presentation, which provides a good overview of the company.
This is the first well in this year's drilling program for Serica. The rest of the year should see:
- June/July Oates Prospect - UK Central North Sea
