Petrel Resources plc [PET] - Irish offshore exploration presents new
potential prospects
25 July 2012
Petrel Resources
plc
(“Petrel” or the “Company”)
Irish offshore exploration presents
new potential prospects
Petrel Resources (AIM: PET) today announces
its operational update for its Atlantic Margin licence options work conducted
since late 2011.
Highlights:
• Several new potential prospects
identified
• First Phase targeted for completion by end 2012
• Significant
market interest in Irish offshore exploration
David Horgan, Managing
Director of Petrel Resources plc, commented:
“The oil world has been
transformed in recent years: despite fluctuations, the oil price remains high.
Ireland’s fiscal terms are competitive and legal title is secure. Technology has
leaped ahead on several fronts, reducing costs and risks. The combination of
three dimensional seismic surveys and directional drilling allow explorers to
map and drain complex reservoirs.
“The planned development of the 1981
Ballyroe discovery, after a dramatic increase in reserves, shows what is now
possible.
“We believe that the Irish offshore will be increasingly
attractive to investors.”
Full Update
• Petrel was awarded (in
October 2011) licensing options over two sets of blocks in the Atlantic
Porcupine Basin.
• The blocks, on the eastern margin of the basin, are Blocks
35/23, 35/24 and the western half of 35/25, and Blocks 45/6, 45/11 and 45/16.
These cover about 1,400 km2 in total.
• Historically, Porcupine Basin
exploration concentrated on Jurassic targets resembling those of the northern
North Sea province. Lack of success led to reduced interest, with no wells
drilled in the basin over the last decade. Success in different categories of
reservoirs elsewhere, as in the West African and South American offshore, has
forced a general re-think, and led to a resurgence of interest in similar
potential targets in the Porcupine Basin.
• In making the bid the Company had
relied on its large archive of seismic data and reports, supported by the
acquisition of a selection of additional seismic lines. This substantial
database has enabled this extensive work to proceed quickly on a modest budget
of one million euro over two years.
• Since the award, Petrel has purchased
additional substantial coverage of seismic lines and undertaken a
re-interpretation of the full integrated data set across both sets of blocks.
The data were carefully calibrated against the relevant well logs. This phase of
the project was completed in June 2012.
• A second phase of interpretation is
now underway to detail and appraise the potential prospects identified in the
first phase of work. This will include the acoustic inversion of selected
seismic lines to assess the quality of the targeted reservoir sections.
Additional seismic lines may be purchased if crucial to the interpretation. This
phase of the work is scheduled to be completed by end September 2012.
• A
separate seismic project is underway to detail the depositional facies and
character of the identified sand bodies.
• All the relevant well data in the
region has been acquired and a full petrophysical appraisal made of 17 wells.
Following the upcoming inversion work, this will improve control of the seismic
data and potential prospects.
• A separate study is being initiated and will
focus on the sedimentary provenance of the reservoir successions. This will
involve initial petrographic analysis, followed up with the application of the
Pb-in-feldspar technique to determine the provenance of first cycle material in
the detrital components of the succession. This is important in the Porcupine
Basin where sediment input can be along the axis of the basin or from the basin
margins.
• Our objective is to develop prospects that will attract in large
partners, with a view to an early seismic campaign followed by exploration
wells.
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