Byron secures Ensco rig for South Marsh

Byron Energy has signed a drilling contract with Ensco Offshore for the Ensco 68 jackup rig to drill at the company’s South Marsh Island Block 71 drilling and completion program in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ensco 68 jackup. Image from Ensco.

The Ensco 68 will be available by the end of November 2017 after Byron sets its tripod production facility on the lease. The 60-day contract will allow Byron to drill the SM71 F2 well and then complete the SM71 F2 and SM71 F1 (previously referred to as SM 71 #1) wells.

The SM71 F2 well has two targets, the B65 Sand and the D5 Sand. The D5 Sand is the primary focus of the development at SM71 and the SM71 F2 well will provide a second take point in the D5 Sand reservoir. Byron’s initial SM71 well, the SM71 #1 (now renamed the SM71 F1), logged 151ft (true vertical thickness) of oil pay in four zones and was drilled in 2016. The company’s independent reserve assessment prepared by Collarini Associates assigned a total of 2.271 MMboe net to Byron to the SM71 F1 well on a 2P basis, with the bulk of those reserves coming from the D5 Sand.

The D5 Sand has been productive in other parts of the South Marsh Island 73 Field where over 20 MMbbl have been produced from multiple D5 Sand completions. The secondary target of the SM71 F2 is the B65 Sand, which lies above the D5 Sand and was stratigraphically pinched-out in the SM71 F1 well.

Byron’s RTM and proprietary inversion processing indicates a positive anomaly at the B65 Sand level that is analogous to known productive reservoirs of the B65 Sand; this well will test the prospective resources attributable to the B65 Sand and provide further calibration for those data sets as we explore in the greater SM71 area.

Collarini assigned 2.042 MMbbl and 2 Bcf of gas net to Byron to the B65 Sand as Prospective Resources. The B65 has produced 13 MMbbl from four trapping areas around the SM73 field. The SM71 F2 well is currently programmed to a depth of 8965ft/2608m measured depth (7555ft/2303m true vertical depth) and is expected to take less than 30 days to drill.

After drilling the SM71 F2, rig operations will convert to completing the SM71 F1 and SM71 F2 wells before the rig is released. Production is expected to start in in late January 2018 or approximately 10 days after the rig leaves location upon final hook-up of production equipment

The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Byron Energy Inc., holds a 50% working interest (40.625% net revenue interest) in South Marsh Island Block 71 and is the operator of record.

In January of 2017, Byron announced that it would utilize a manned, Byron operated platform to produce hydrocarbons found on the block. Otto Energy, holds the remaining 50% working interest.

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