UK-based Deltic Energy has officially accepted Licence P2672, provisionally awarded by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) as part of the UK's 33rd Offshore Licensing Round.
The UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) licence encompasses blocks 47/5e, 47/10c and 48/6c to the west of the West Sole gas field and includes the Pharos and Teviot discoveries.
The company's preliminary evaluation suggests that the Pharos discovery and the Blackadder prospect are a single Leman Sandstone structure.
Deltic estimates that the Blackadder/Pharos project has 293 billion cubic feet (bcf) of P10 resources, 165bcf of P50 resources and 66bcf of P90 resources.
The 47/10-8 well, part of the Teviot discovery, is thought to contain 9bcf of P90 resources, 17bcf of P50 resources and 27bcf of P10 resources.
Both have a 65% geological chance of success and have encountered gas-bearing Leman Sandstone.
However, as neither well was flow tested, there is a residual risk concerning reservoir effectiveness.
The 47/05d-6 well, drilled by a Dana Petroleum-led consortium in 2013, was initially believed to be a stand-alone prospect.
Updated structural mapping, however, has revealed that it intersected the larger Blackadder structure in a downdip location.
The initial three-year Phase A work programme for Licence P2672 will focus on reprocessing existing 3D seismic data.
This will enhance reservoir imaging and refine the structural model, aiming to further de-risk the Blackadder structure at a nominal cost.
Deltic CEO Graham Swindells: "The Blackadder project has many analogous attributes to the Selene prospect, where the reworking of legacy datasets has unearthed a potential missed pay opportunity of material scale.
“Blackadder's location, in close proximity to existing infrastructure that requires new third party gas to defer decommissioning, should enhance its value in a mature basin where new licences are likely to become increasingly scarce. Over the coming year we will progress our work on the legacy data in preparation for farm-out, in anticipation of drilling an appraisal well on Blackadder in due course.”
