Parkmead, the UK and Netherlands focused independent oil and gas group, has nearly doubled its stake in the major Sanda North and Sanda South structures in the West of Shetland area of the UK North Sea. These two large Palaeocene prospects are both located within Block 205/13. Through this accretive step, Parkmead has increased its equity in the license from 56% to 100%. The Sanda North and Sanda South prospects, which are both operated by Parkmead, have the potential to contain 280 MMbbl of recoverable oil on a most likely, P50 basis.
The license covering Block 205/13 was originally awarded to Parkmead as part of the UKCS 28th Licensing Round, where Parkmead was awarded a total of six new oil and gas licenses covering 10 offshore blocks.
Block 205/13 is situated in the Faroe-Shetland Trough in the West of Shetland region of the UK North Sea, to the northeast of the Lancaster field. The primary play fairway developed on this acreage is the Paleocene Vaila Formation which forms the reservoir in the important nearby oil fields at Foinaven, Schiehallion and Loyal, and also in the Laggan and Tormore gas discoveries which are situated to the northeast of Sanda.
The Vaila Formation consists of a sequence of interbedded sandstones, deposited in a submarine fan environment, and contains five main reservoir units. Detailed mapping of Block 205/13 indicates two exploration targets, Sanda North and Sanda South, which are defined by distinct amplitude anomalies in the Palaeocene Vaila section.
The Sanda prospects have been de-risked through the drilling of a previous well up-dip of the amplitude anomaly. Parkmead’s experienced team of geoscientists has already undertaken extensive seismic reprocessing work on the license and has recently acquired detailed geochemical data from the previously drilled well. This new data will be analyzed to further de-risk the target ahead of a drilling decision at Sanda.