Empyrean identifies ‘exciting new prospect’ offshore China

London-listed Empyrean Energy has confirmed structural validity of two prospects and identified a third significant target in a block offshore China, following preliminary mapping of ‘raw seismic 3D data.’

Empyrean has completed the preliminary internal interpretation of the ‘fast-tracked’ processing of raw seismic data from the recently acquired 3D seismic on Block 29/11, offshore China, the company said on Thursday.

Empyrean has a 100 percent working interest during the exploration phase in the block, which is situated approximately 200 kilometers off Hong Kong in water depths ranging from 340-600 meters.

The seismic survey, which began in June and ended in August, was performed by China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL).

After the data was acquired, the seismic vessel demobilized from the survey area. The survey evaluated the extent of a potential geological tie between the LH 23-1d oil discovery and Jade and Topaz prospects.

Empyrean said that the preliminary interpretation confirmed the structural validity and the potential size of the Jade and Topaz prospects and revealed “an exciting new prospect” named Pearl which is located north of Topaz.

According to the company, the preliminary prospective resources low estimates for the Jade prospect is 89 mmbbls. The best and high estimates equal 103 and 143 mmbbls, respectively.

Likewise, the low, best and high estimates for the Topaz discovery are 280, 365, or 498 mmbbls and Pearl estimates are 84, 123, and 206 mmbbls.

Empyrean CEO, Tom Kelly, said: “Empyrean is excited to confirm that, based on our internal preliminary analysis, Block 29/11 contains prospects of truly significant scale and size. That the three priority targets have a cumulative mean potential to contain 591 million barrels of oil is a great early result from the 3D seismic data recently acquired.

“We will obtain better resolution and imaging from the full processing of data, a process which is underway and the results of which will be announced in due course, but these early results greatly exceed our expectations, and the data quality is excellent.”