Success of the Butch South West prospect, drilling on which has started, could prompt a new stand alone production facility in the North Sea, according to Faroe Petroleum.
Drilling on the Centrica-operated Butch South West exploration well 8/10-6S, in the Norwegian North Sea, has started, says UK-based explorer Faroe Petroleum.
Faroe holds 15% equity in the Butch license and says Butch South West is adjacent to the 2011 Butch discovery, in about 65m water depth, close to the Ula, Tambar, and Gyda fields, all of which have infrastructure in place.
The Butch oil discovery contains a light crude oil in a high quality reservoir, the Upper Jurassic reservoir of the Ula formation. The Butch South West exploration well is in a separate segment from both the Butch East well, the results of which were announced on 12 May 2014, and the Butch main well.
The operator is currently working on a development plan for the Butch Main discovery, in parallel with drilling the Butch South West well.
Faroe says, if Butch South West is successful, the development has the potential to become a stand-alone design, with its own dedicated facility, instead of a sub-sea tie-back to existing nearby infrastructure.
The Butch licence drilling operations are operated by Centrica (40%) using the Maersk Giant jackup drilling rig (pictured), together with the other joint venture partners Suncor Norge (30%), Tullow Oil Norge (15%) and Faroe.
Graham Stewart, Chief Executive of Faroe Petroleum commented: "We are pleased to announce the spudding of the Butch South West exploration well which, if successful, offers the potential to add substantially to the volumes and value of the Butch field, as the adjacent Butch Main field is already on track for near-term development.
"In the near term we also look forward to reporting the results from exploration drilling on the Bue prospect (Faroe 25%) in the Norwegian Sea in close proximity to the recently announced significant Pil oil and gas discovery."
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