SOSINA confirms that Providence Resources, operator of the Celtic Sea partnership (comprising six oil companies including SOSINA) has secured a semi-submersible rig for the drilling campaign in the Celtic Sea this summer. This follows on from the announcement of 10 October 2007, confirming the appraisal of a significant oil accumulation on the Hook Head structure with the drilling of the 50/11-3 appraisal well.
Under the terms of the agreement the Celtic Sea partners have hired the Transocean semi-submersible rig, the GSF ARCTIC 2. The contract consists of two firm wells plus an option for a third. The primary objective will be to further appraise the Hook Head oil accumulation. Depending on the outcome of this appraisal programme, the partners may then also elect to drill a further appraisal well on the adjacent Dunmore East 50/6-1 oil discovery, located some 20 kilometres north of the Hook Head accumulation. Details on the precise drilling locations and the drilling sequence will be confirmed over the coming months.
About Hook Head
The Hook Head structure is a large mid-basinal anticline where three wells have successfully encountered hydrocarbon bearing sands. The original IRL50/11-1 discovery well was drilled by Marathon in 1971, while the subsequent IRL50/11-2 appraisal well, which was also drilled by Marathon (1975), was located as a delineation well at the down-dip edge of the structure. Post-drill mapping by Marathon indicated that the crest of the structure was located to the north-east of the IRL50/11-1 discovery well, which was further supported by the seismic data acquired by Providence in 2006. This view has now been confirmed based on data obtained from the IRL50/11-3 appraisal well, which was drilled in 2007. Pre-drill, in-house, volumetric estimates suggested that the Hook Head accumulation has total prospective resources of up to 70 MMBO REC.
Details on Hook Head 50/11-3 Well
The well was drilled during August-October 2007 and was located in c. 240 ft. water depth. The well was situated c. 60 km offshore southern Ireland in Standard Exploration Licence 2/07 in the North Celtic Sea Basin. The licence interest is jointly held by six companies and is operated by Providence Resources Plc, which has an interest of 43.5%. The well was drilled to a total depth (TD) of 4,880 ft. true vertical depth subsea (TVDSS) using the semi-submersible drilling rig Petrolia.
Licence partners include, Providence Resources Plc (Operator) 43.5294%, Challenger Minerals (Celtic Sea) Limited 16.3235%, Dyas BV 16.3235%, Forest Gate Resources Inc. 7.5%, Atlantic Petroleum (Ireland) Limited 10.8824%, Sosina Exploration Limited 5.4412%.
