North Sea explorer Independent Oil and Gas has seen an increase in resource estimates on two southern North Sea prospects, Elgood and Harvey, following 3D seismic reprocessing work.
Harvey, initially thought to be one discovery and a nearby prospect are now thought to be linked. IOG is considering an appraisal well to help build its reservoir model. The development could be tied back to the same export route as the Blythe and Vulcan satellite hubs.
Meanwhile, IOG is looking to develop Elgood as a single well tieback as part of the Blythe field development, for which IOG submitted a draft development plan earlier this week.
The firm has also been given license extensions for two licenses, Harvey (three months) and Skipper (two years), to allow more work on both licenses before carrying out work commitments.
Resource growth
IOG's P50 probabilistic gas resources have increased from 382 Bcf to 490 Bcf, through the reprocessing by seismic firm Beagle Geoscience. The P50 resources at Harvey increased to 113 Bcf, (previously 16 BCF), and at Elgood they have increased to 22 Bcf (previously 11 Bcf).
Prior to the latest work, the Harvey discovery (drilled by Arco in 1984, well 48/23-2) and the Truman prospect were considered separate structures with resources of 16 Bcf and 25 Bcf respectively. The new data has led to improved understanding of the complex faulting that exists in the overlying strata, which provides management with a new significantly different interpretation of what it believes is a single, larger Harvey structure.
The Elgood discovery was drilled by Enterprise in 1991, well 48/22-4 and tested gas to surface at rates up to 17.6 MMcf/d. IOG says Elgood will be co-developed with the Blythe gas field and would have a single well tied back to the unmanned platform and producing well at Blythe. Some further pre-development technical work is now being undertaken on Elgood prior to an anticipated field development plan being completed and submitted.
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