Cairn Energy Plc (LON:CNE), the Edinburgh based oil and gas group, has kicked off drilling operations on the Alpha prospect in the Sigguk block, which lies approximately 175km offshore Disko Island, west Greenland. The Stena Don, a fifth generation semi submersible rig and the Stena Forth, a sixth generation drillship, are set to carry out Cairn’s drilling programme in Greenland this summer.
This four-well programme is targeting the Alpha and T8 exploration prospects which lie in water depths of between 300 and 500 metres. The wells have planned target depths of 4,200m and 3,250m and are anticipated to take 55 and 38 days respectively. Ice monitoring programmes and ice management studies have confirmed an operating window between end June and early December in west Disko. Each well is being drilled using a pilot hole through the initial top hole section. Cairn said it would provide an update on the drilling operations in August.
The west Disko licence blocks (Sigguk and Eqqua) are located more than 200 km from the nearest coastline and cover a total area of 23,815 sq km. Thirty prospects and leads have so far been identified on the acreage. The four well programme is targeting a prospective resource of approximately 1.6 billion of risked gross mean oil in place and around 385m barrels of risked resources, (16 billion of unrisked oil in place and 4.1 billion barrels unrisked resources). The initial prospects are estimated to have a 7-14% chance of success based on an assessment of basin and individual prospect risks. Separately, a 2,000 km 2D seismic survey is planned to be acquired over the Eqqua block during this summer.
In May, Cairn said that the acceleration of the exploration programme off the west Greenland coast meant it could plan and focus a potential 2011 exploration drilling programme on the previously unmapped and undrilled basins and sub-basins offshore southern Greenland. A 6,000km 2D seismic survey and well site surveys will be carried out across these blocks in 2010. Separately, Cairn recently submitted three applications for blocks in the offshore West Greenland Baffin Bay Exploration Bid Round as part of its strategy to secure further high potential acreage in Greenland.
Following the IPO of Cairn India in January 2007, there are now two separate arms to the Cairn Energy business. The first, Cairn India, is listed in…
Further to earlier comments on a BP thread about the activities of Greenpeace, it is now known that their ship, the Esperanza, sailed on past the Faroes and has arrived at it's first deepwater target near Greenland, the drilling rigs west of Disko Island operated by Cairn Energy Plc (LON:CNE)
Danish Warship Blocks Arctic Oil Drilling Protest
LONDON (Dow Jones)--A Danish warship has prevented a Greenpeace protest ship entering an exclusion zone around Cairn Energy PLC (CNE.LN) drilling rigs that are exploring for oil offshore Greenland, the environmental group said in a statement Monday.
The protest ship, Esperanza, has positioned itself at the edge of a 500-meter exclusion zone around one of the Cairn drilling rigs west of Greenland's Disko Island, Greenpeace said. "The Danish warship has positioned itself alongside the Esperanza," it said.
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza has arrived in the icy waters of the Arctic to confront a British company’s dangerous deepwater oil drilling operation in one of the most fragile environments on earth.
Greenpeace has singled out Cairn Energy, which is currently drilling two wells off the West coast of Greenland in an area known as ‘iceberg alley’. If Cairn is successful the Arctic could be flooded with oil companies, all trying to operate in hazardous polar conditions.
A Danish Thetis-class warship has been sent to drilling site and has warned the Captain of the Esperanza that he faces arrest if the 500m security zone surrounding each drilling rig is breached. The Esperanza is anchored in ‘iceberg alley’ between the Stena Don rig and Stena Forth drill ship, which are 20 miles apart. Danish Special forces were earlier deployed on the Faeroe Islands as the Greenpeace ship passed. It is unclear whether the commando team was sent on to Disko Island.
