Cairn hits dust in UK North Sea well

November 15, 2018

Oil company Cairn Energy has failed to find commercial hydrocarbons in its Ekland well in the UK North Sea and has decided to farm out its Chimera prospect, also located in the UK North Sea.

Shipyard Bergen Group Laksevåg; Source: Wiki Commons; Author: HMPinnsvinet – under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license

In an operational update on Thursday Cairn said that its commitment exploration well on license P2184 in the UK North Sea, targeting the Ekland prospect, failed to encounter commercial hydrocarbons.

The well, drilled using the Ensco 101 jack-up drilling rig, has been plugged and abandoned.

Cairn has a 45% interest in license P2184 and is the operator. Cairn’s partners in the license are Zennor with a 30% interest and Petrogas with the remaining 25% interest.

It is also worth mentioning that Cairn Energy is one of the partners in Azinor Catalyst-operated Agar-Plantain Prospect in the UK North Sea. As reported earlier today, Azinor Catalyst made an oil discovery at its 9/14a-17B well and associated side-track on the Agar-Plantain Prospect. Cairn has an option to take over operatorship with respect to future activity on the Agar-Plantain project.

Chimera farm-out

Cairn also said on Thursday it had entered into a farm-out agreement for a 40% non-operated interest in License P2312 containing the Chimera prospect targeting 154 gross mmboe mean resource in the UK North Sea. Cairn is the operator of the license with a 100% working interest and it plans to drill a well in the second half of 2019.

The oil company noted that the farm out agreement is conditional upon regulatory consent. No further details have been revealed regarding the company farming into the prospect.

The next well in Cairn’s exploration program will be Presto (formerly Stjerneskudd) on PL885 in the Norwegian North Sea, targeting 160 gross mmboe mean resource with standalone potential and significant follow on potential with success. The well is expected to spud in late December 2018. Cairn has a 30% working interest in the license and Equinor is the operator. Other partners in the license are Wellesley and Petoro.

Offshore Energy Today Staff