British Shell Has Two North Sea Drilling Targets Planned for Next Year
Deltic Energy, a London-based oil and gas exploration company investing in the UK’s established hydrocarbon provinces, has significant interests in a number of highly prospective licenses in the southern and central North Sea and is Shell’s joint venture partner in the UK’s southern North Sea.
Deltic Energy said the Selena exploration well will be drilled in the third quarter of next year, and the Pensacola appraisal well is planned for late 2024.
With a gross P50 prospective resource of 318 Bcf, the Selena Field is one of the largest undrilled structures in the Permian’s world-class Lehman sandstone fairway.
Shell UK Ltd has exercised its option on license P2437 and, in particular, the Selena prospect. Upon completion of the transaction in August 2019, Deltic transferred a 50% working interest in license P2437 to Shell in exchange for a cash consideration of $600,000, with Shell funding 75% of the first exploration costs.
The Pensacola discovery is one of the most significant discoveries in the Southern Gas Basin in recent years. Deltic estimates that the Zechstein carbonate reservoir contains total recoverable P50 oil and gas resources of almost 100 million boe. The partnership currently plans to conduct appraisal drilling in late 2024 to support the field development plan.
Shell UK Ltd is developing license P2252 and the promising Pensacola field. Upon completion of the transaction in the second quarter of 2019, Deltic transferred to Shell (the operator) a 70% working interest in license P2252 in exchange for Shell financing 100% of the cost of a 400 km2 3D seismic acquisition program over Pensacola, which was completed in the summer 2019. Shell also financed the corresponding data processing and various petrotechnical studies, which resulted in a positive decision to invest in the well in March 2021.
