P/F Atlantic Petroleum announces the successful appraisal of the Blackbird discovery in the UK Central North Sea.
The 20/2a-9 Blackbird well was spudded on 24th May 2010 with the aim of appraising the Blackbird structure that was first drilled in 2008 and assessing the viability of developing Blackbird as a subsea tieback over the Ettrick FPSO. The well was drilled in a water depth of approximately 367 feet to a total measured depth of 12,000 feet. It encountered approximately 330 vertical feet gross of oil bearing Upper Jurassic sediments, some of which were cored. An extensive set of wireline log data is being acquired over the reservoir section and preliminary log analysis suggests the presence of approximately 75 feet total net thickness of good quality oil bearing reservoir sands.
The forward plan is to complete the well and to carry out a production test before potentially suspending the well as an oil producer for future tie back to the Ettrick FPSO.
The Blackbird 20/2a-8 discovery well was drilled in 2008 and was located approximately six kilometers south of the Ettrick Field. The well encountered 111 feet of net pay in multiple zones in the Upper Jurassic Ettrick sandstones and tested at an average restricted rate of 3,800 barrels of oil per day through a 34/64 inch choke.
Partners on the licence are Nexen (operator) 79.73%, Dana Petroleum 12% and Atlantic Petroleum 8.27%.
Sigurð í Jákupsstovu, Atlantic Petroleum's CEO, stated:
'We are very pleased with results from the well so far and look forward to the production tests being carried out in the next few weeks. It is hoped that Blackbird can be brought on stream by year end 2011 or early 2012, further strengthening Atlantic Petroleum's production base and our position for continued growth of the company'
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