U.K. Continental Shelf focused Azinor Catalyst Limited announced on Thursday an oil discovery at its 9/14a-17B well and associated side-track on the Agar-Plantain Prospect in the North Sea.
The initial 9/14a-17B well on the Agar-Plantain Prospect, was drilled safely to its target depth and encountered excellent quality oil and water bearing sands, the Seacrest Capital Group-backed E&P company said. This wellbore delineated the eastern extent of the hydrocarbon discovery and encouraged the partners to drill the contingent Agar side-track to further appraise the discovery. The Agar side-track has encountered a 20 meter (gross TVT) interval of very high quality oil-bearing sands, with no identified oil water contact.
Reservoir oil samples have now been recovered to surface and further analysis will be required to establish the quality of the oil and assist in further defining recoverable resources. Based on a preliminary analysis, Catalyst said it believes the Agar-Plantain discovery holds recoverable resources of between 15 and 50 million barrels of oil equivalent, in line with pre-drill estimates.
Operator Azinor Catalyst has a 25 percent working interest in the wells, together with Nautical Petroleum, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn Energy PLC, (50 percent), and Faroe Petroleum PLC (25 percent).
The Agar-Plantain well is in the process of being plugged and abandoned.
Nick Terrell, Managing Director of Azinor Catalyst, commented, “This success represents a significant step forward for Catalyst and for our Agar-Plantain asset. Given the proximity to local infrastructure, the shallow reservoir depths and significant upside on the block, this is shaping up to be a highly attractive project for us.”
Henry Morris, Technical Director of Azinor Catalyst, commented, “Our upfront investment in a large high-quality seismic database, integrated with quantitative geoscience, has proven invaluable. Next year we plan to drill three high quality prospects – Goose, Boaz and Hinson – all which have been defined and de-risked using similar forensic geoscientific techniques.”
Paul Murray, Chairman of Azinor Catalyst and co-founder of Seacrest Capital Group, commented, “This result is an important step forward in Azinor Catalyst’s program in the UK North Sea. The Company and wider Seacrest Capital Group remain committed to further investment in the UK and we look forward to our 2019 drilling campaign and future announcements.”
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